Pay Me When You Win: A Revenue Sharing Model for Coaches & Consultants

So you've built a service that gets results. When your clients follow your plan, their revenue grows. And when they grow, your business grows. Right? Probably not.

Even if your work creates massive ROI for your clients, your income will still likely depend on those flat fees or fixed retainers. And there is a ceiling to how far those can stretch. You want to scale, but without walking away from the deep high impact work you actually like doing. You want a model that feels more aligned where you and your clients are on the same team and where the better they do, the better you do. But most of the advice on pricing strategy is either vague, so just raise your rates, or it demands a hard pivot into one to many offers.

What if there was another path? What if you could scale by tying your revenue to the results your clients actually get and build a model that reflects the trust, the impact, and the partnership at the heart of your work? Imagine this. A client just closed a hundred k launch. You've been in the trenches with them, refining strategy, reviewing copy, helping them ship their offer.

And when they win, you win because you're getting 10% of that revenue as part of your compensation. That's the model Lacey Sites built inside her coaching business. She didn't stop working with clients. She didn't add a group program. She just changed how she gets paid and in doing so doubled her revenue without adding any new clients.

I'm Susan Bowles, and you're listening to Calm is the New KPI, the show where we challenge default business advice and break down the levers you can pull to build a calmer business that actually works for you. Today's episode is part our series on scaling your client business without ditching clients, and we're focusing on the business design lever of the calmer framework. If you've ever wished your pricing model felt more equitable or more you've profitable, this episode might open up a new way of thinking. This is a re edited conversation from my twenty nineteen interview with Lacey Seitz, a founder of A Lit Up Life. This is one of my top listened to episodes.

Lacey and I dig into how revenue sharing actually works in practice, how and why Lacey tested her ideas before she rolled them out, and how filtering for the right clients is critical when your income depends on their success. Before Lacey shifted her pricing model, her business looked a lot yours might. She was working with clients one on one, charging flat fees, delivering big results, and getting the same paycheck no matter how big those results were. That's the default. You get hired to help someone grow their business.

You roll up your sleeves, you dig deep, and maybe even help them hit a record breaking milestone. And whether they make 10 k or a hundred k, you get paid the same amount. It's steady. It's familiar. And it's what most of us were told success looks like as a service provider.

But that's exactly the problem. The default way of doing business says you charge for your time, not your impact. You scale by stepping back from client work. And if you want to earn more, your only options are raising your rates or busting your butt to get more clients. The math is rigid.

The incentives are misaligned. And even when you want to invest deeply in your client's success, there's no built in reason for your clients to see you as a long term strategic partner. It's a default model that works until it doesn't. For Lacey, the breaking point came when she started hearing the same thing from every new lead. I've been burned before.

Nervous. I've paid high ticket coaches who didn't deliver. And she realized if she wanted to build real trust, if she wanted to attract smart strategic clients who are ready to do the work, she needed a pricing model that reflected partnership she was actually offering. So she started experimenting. Not with her services, but with how she got paid.

And the results were, well, you'll hear for yourself. Alright. Hi, Lacey. Thanks so much for being here with me today.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.

So give me like a quick one sentence, you know, who you are, what you do kind of to start the conversation off here.

Yeah, absolutely. I have my MBA and my master's in mental health counseling, I basically put those two together to help high achieving women grow and scale their online business.

You have a very unique kind of pricing compensation structure in your business. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? How it works?

Absolutely. So when clients hire me, they pay me a base rate, but then on top of that, they pay me 10% of the new revenue generated through our work together.

Did you always price your services that way? Or was this something that you transitioned to at some point? Was there some kind of trigger that led you down this path?

For sure. I did not always price them this way. And there was definitely a trigger. Initially I just priced normally, like, you know, I just had a flat coaching rate. That's what you paid that kind of thing.

But, but something I was hearing from people over and over again that were coming to me to work with me is basically like, I've been burned before and I'm scared. Right. Another thing that I was hearing is like, I really want to do this, but like, it just feels like such a big leap pricing wise. My old background is that I was in the nonprofit world and I worked a lot on like re engineering service delivery models. So I was like always asking the question of like, how can we do this better?

How can we reach more people? How can this be more accessible? Things like that. Right. And so that really was the question I started to apply here.

Like how can we create accessibility? How can this be done better? How can people stop being so scared of getting, you know, screwed again, basically, or whatever, you know,

their thought process Right. And,

and that's kind of where this came from. I had been pondering it for, for quite a long time. And then I like specifically remember one day I was like, taking a bubble bath as, as it would be, not thinking about it at all. And it literally just hit me. Like, I was like, oh my God, I'm just going to charge a revenue percentage.

And I pretty much ran with it. Start starting right from that moment.

So how do you track that? Is it, you know, any revenue that they, that comes in after you guys start working together or

it's like, you pay me and hopefully it works out for you. Right? Right. And I want it to feel like you pay me and I have a vested interest in your success. When I win, you win, and I call it partnership.

And so basically they only pay me when they're, when they're having that win, when they're making that money, when their revenue is growing. And it has just been incredible.

So did you transition existing clients or you use the new model with new clients? How did you, how did you actually implement this?

So actually what I did at first was I, I'm like a big tester. Like, I don't love to like dive into anything. Like I want to get data. I want to tweak it, like stuff like that. So what I did in the beginning was I basically ran what I called the partnership process and I had people apply.

And so I didn't even charge a base rate then. Was basically like, work with me for 10% of your revenue. And I had so many people apply. Like I think the first time we had maybe a hundred to 200 applications.

Wow.

And I took people through a really long process because I was basically like, well, I want to vet you if and make sure you're

Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of risk on your part. Yeah. You know?

Totally. So I did that. The first time I think I took on two or three clients and I think both of them ended up paying me more than my flat rate. And I was like, wow, there's something to this. And so I actually ran the partnership process, I think three more times before I took it full scale in my business.

So I had a lot of data going in, which was really important. Like I already could see how this was working. I think that's really important with innovative ideas. You sometimes were so quick to jump in and it's like, okay if you test it for a while. Like I basically tested it for a year before I brought it fully into my business.

When I did, I only did it for new clients and I grandfathered in old clients. So I still have clients to this day that have been with me that long. I mean, maybe like one or two, right? But like that aren't paying a percentage, but basically everyone else is.

Interesting. So when you were vetting people to decide whether or not they'd be a good match for this revenue share model. What were you, what were you looking for? What characteristics were you filtering for?

The most important to me was honestly commitment because I think that something like a revenue share like that, where you don't have skin in the game up front, like, if you're lacking in commitment, that can be a really big deterrent. So

Yeah. Especially when we're talking revenue and it's dependent on them actually going and selling things.

Oh my god. A %. So, basically I took them, like they had to fill out an application, then they had to make a video, then they had to fill out an entire business plan. So that was like a three week process. And so by that point, like they had invested a lot in terms of like time, energy, their own, like, you know, digging and answering questions and everything like that.

And so I was really more like who is willing to go through this whole process, number one, and stay committed to it. And then how committed are they in those applications? Like, you know, it's very obvious when someone wants to put like a one word answer for everything.

Right. Yes.

Right? Versus like someone that like really wants to tell you like how they're going to use this to make it work. That's a constant question I'm always asking in that process is like, what are you bringing to the table? Like, this is a partnership. So like, tell me why I should pick you.

What are you going to do to make this work? And then I kind of just went off my gut, honestly.

Interesting. I love the idea of using the process itself as a filter. I do something similar with essentially with one of my lead sort of products or services is I have a fairly extensive questionnaire that's there for the purpose of making sure that they're thinking about their answers, that they're getting ready to have the conversation we're going to have, and kind of that using that commitment as part of the process. So I love that concept.

Absolutely. I think that it's surprising how many people aren't committed to things like that. And so it is a really, really helpful filter.

Yeah, and absolutely, particularly in something where there's so much risk on your end in terms of, you know, you can coach them, but you can't do the work for them. Ultimately, they have to be able to do the work to generate that revenue. That's ultimately the result of your work together. And you're taking on the risk of them not doing the work that they're supposed to do.

Totally. I think like one way that I've reframed that is I want to stand behind my own work and I want to put my money where my mouth is kind of thing. I think that is vastly missing in our space in so many ways. Like I think we've gotten to this point where we're asking to pay very, very, very, very high rates without really wanting to have any stake in that game or put our money where our mouth is. And like, as a coach, you can't do the work, but like we also can't take no responsibility.

And so I think it's just this thing I like to play with of like, what is my level of responsibility in this? Right. And I guess you could say I valued it at 10%.

Yeah, I think that's an interesting perspective because I agree. And this I can see where the revenue share model sort of functions as a little bit of a guarantee for them from the client's perspective. It's an easy it's an easy sales tool of, you know, you know, this doesn't happen unless you actually see results. So I I love that as a both as a sales tool and as your own personal check to make sure that you are still really invested in your work with your clients.

Absolutely. I think that's a beautiful way to say it. Like, it is a it is like a check on both sides, almost. It's like a check and balance kind of thing. Right?

And something that I found to be really interesting in doing it is I feel like I've almost, attract, and obviously I'm like a super biased because they're my clients. Right. But I feel like I attract such smart business women because of that. Like, I feel like they're really thinking about it in a different way. Like, so many of my clients are, you know, making over the two fifty, five hundred ks mark and hiring me because they want that because to hire someone that's further along, so to speak in that realm, you know, you're talking $5,000 a month for a base rate for a coach kind of thing.

And they're like, I could do that. I can afford that at this revenue, but I want somebody who's like literally invested in my growth and who I pay if I grow, who I'm not just paying a really high rate because they've maybe gotten a result before. Want someone who I'm paying a really high rate because they can get me a result.

Absolutely. Yeah. And I could see where that kind of model would inherently attract people that are more invested and are thinking more critically about how how their business operates and how they are valuing basically every dollar that goes out and making sure that that dollar is working for them.

Right. They were thinking about it in really smart strategic ways. Like, what's the, what's the return on that investment? And when they understand how partnership works and how this model works, they're like, well, that's really obvious.

So when you started off experimenting with this new model, you were doing just a revenue share as your compensation. But currently, your pricing model is a flat monthly rate plus the 10% revenue share. So what prompted you to add back in a base rate?

Yeah. Great question. So initially when I did the revenue share only, it was, like, with two clients, basically. I would do, like, two at a time, and then I would have still all my regular clients, like, just on a base rate or just on a regular payment structure. I kept feeling a pull to be like, this is something like, this means something I really want to turn my business in this direction.

But fundamentally at the end of the day, like I have operating expenses as a business. Right. And so I felt like I needed some level of certainty and I needed to take some level of responsibility there too because of course I have a team to pay and all of that. So I was trying to find that balance of like, how can I basically make this my business model but without taking so much risk that I'm like not putting myself in a good position to actually serve my clients? Because I think that's important too, where like, I want to be invested in their success, but not so invested that I'm like, well, if you don't do good on this launch, I can't pay my team.

Right.

Cause then we're like over invested and it gets weird. So for me, that's where the base rate came in. Like, was like, if I'm gonna transition my whole business to this, that has to be a non negotiable because that keeps me the right amount of invested and detached with my clients. And it gives me the right amount of certainty and ability to function and operate as a business.

That totally makes sense. And balancing kind of where your level of risk and investment should ultimately be and making that reflect how you emotionally are also invested in their business.

Exactly. And I think another important piece of it is I really do think there's some level of energetic exchange that's really important in having to pay your coach something, right? Yeah. Like, there's a belief that comes through that of, like, I believe this much in my business that I am willing to put this money on the table first kind of thing.

Yeah. There's definitely a psychological kind of investment that comes with putting your money where your mouth is.

Exactly. So I feel like I'm kind of doing that right by being like, I'm willing to like be your partner in this and let's go all in. And then I need them to be able to do it a little bit too. Like, and I'm willing to pay your base rate. Like, So it feels like there's this even exchange of us both being like, let's put some energy and some stake in the game.

That totally makes sense. So when you are pitching this nontraditional model to new clients, do you get any kind of resistance because it's very atypical or do you use it as a filter or how how does that kind of conversation end up working?

I have to tell you, when I first started doing this, I was like, I basically prepared myself. Like, was like, I'm probably going to get a ton of pushback on calls. This is probably going to be something most people aren't going to be interested in adopting. I'm okay with that. Like, I, I like prepped hard.

You know what I mean? I don't think I've really gotten one sincere objection around it. Mhmm. Because most people are like, I freaking love that you are invested in my success in that way.

So it's most people are viewing it more as a positive than a negative.

Exactly. Exactly. Like the only time I've ever really gotten, any level of pushback is sometimes like, so a lot of my clients work with me for a long time. Like I have a six month program, but most of my clients stay with me for a year or longer. And every now and then, like as a client has like really grown in our work together and they're about to resign, they're like, oh my gosh, I realize how much money I'm resigning for at this point basically.

Right.

Yep.

And, and I'm like always happy to talk through that with them, but ultimately the, like the conclusion most of them come to is like, but the reason I'm making this much money is because we've had this partnership. So it makes sense versus like going to someone else and paying them this much money who hasn't been part of my success or hasn't built this with me, so to speak.

That totally makes sense. Yeah. The concept is just really interesting.

It's a lot to take in when you're like, at that point, you're like, oh wait, I get how much I'm making and how much I'm resigning for at this point. Right?

Yeah, but it's not really any different than something like an affiliate program or, you know, there's a lot of ways where we cut a percentage of our income out to other expenses. There's not intellectually necessarily anything different to a revenue share to your coach versus a revenue share to a referral or an affiliate.

A %. It's basically like an operating expense at that point. And like, what I always remind people too is that like, the thing that's so safe about it is it's literally based on what you make just like affiliate sales, right? Like, I'm not paying out affiliates if they're not making sales. I'm like, it's the same here.

So I think that's super valuable.

Absolutely. So how do you actually execute this? So you are like from an actual physical exchange of invoices and payments. How do you make that happen? How does that kind of exchange work?

Yeah, great question. So in our contract, we have the right to audit any and all of their books, basically. That is not a practice that feels necessary. Most of the time, right? Like, I feel like that partnership mentality, like that starts off the coaching relationship in such a different way.

Like, I feel like I just know where my clients are at. Like, they're telling me about their sales. I know what they're making. Like, I have a guesstimate of like where we're ending up. So like, I never really feel this like deep pull to be like, how can I like get exact specifics?

Like I, we truly form a relationship where I just believe and totally trust in what they're saying. And we're talking enough and communicating enough. I'm like very hands on with all my clients that like, I pretty much know, right? In terms of like the specifics, what happens is we have an automated reminder that goes out to all of our clients on the first Tuesday of every month, basically to say like, reconcile your numbers for last month, let us know what they are. They have a certain amount of days to get that back to us, then we invoice them based on their percentage, and then they have like, you know, ten days to take care of it.

So they're effectively getting two invoices from us each month, which is the base rate and then the percentage. And so instead of paying one monthly sum, so to speak, like in most coaching situations, they're basically paying us twice a month.

Your clients are getting great results from this, which is amazing. But what kind of impact on your business has this had? Either with helping you build in some margins or just generally feeling calmer.

Oh my gosh. It's changed everything. So I'm I'm someone that loves one on one. Some of my clients don't. I could be on seven calls in a day and be like, That was the best day ever.

And some of my clients are like, If I was on seven calls in a day, would jump off a bridge. I cannot with that.

Yeah, that sounds exhausting.

Right? So it's just a matter of personal preference. This is certainly not a recommendation I have for everyone, but for me and my personality and what I love, it has been an incredible fit and it's just changed the game because for so long, I was basically told by friends and mentors and whatever is that I was limiting myself and playing small by not scaling with the one to many model and by not having big group programs and whatever. And I'll tell you that I tried it. I remember my last group program launch, it went well.

I think we had 43 people. It was good. I hated it. I loved the people. I just hated it.

I hated launching. I hated running a group. I wanted to, like, literally be in all of their businesses. I would, stay up at night, like searching them on the Internet to try to find out more about their biz like, it just was not a good situation. Right?

Well, I think there's a lot of messages out there about that. That is the only choice in terms of scaling an online business is that you have to start doing group programs or you have to start doing courses. And there's no possible way to work one on one with clients without either growing an agency or figuring out an alternative. And I love that you kind of said screw it to all of that. So I'll just find a way to do it.

Yeah. I mean, I really did feel like that. Like I was basically just like, I'm so sick of hearing like one on one isn't scalable. Like, I'll just figure that out because that's like, I mean, this sounds so cheesy, but I really feel like this measure of like, but this is what I'm meant to be doing in the world kind of thing. And so it's just changed everything in terms of like, I feel like we actually have what I can call scalable one on one.

So we started at the beginning of last year and you can imagine I had like a lot of clients that were grandfathered in. Last year we did nothing different in our business besides changing to that new model. And again, a lot of people were grandfathered in, so it wasn't like a full scale thing. We added 100 ks in revenue to our business last year, with that.

Just from that. Wow, that's impressive.

Like didn't work more, didn't take on more clients, nothing. Like it was just like with the new clients and their growth, that's what we were able to add. And so for me, like, I might not have the business model that goes 0 to a million in a year, but just to be able to see, like, we can add 6 figures every year through this thing, and I think we'll have added 6 figures this year too. It just has changed my ability to be like, I can do it my way. I can make things work my way.

And like, there's literally nothing in the world that makes me more proud than being able to be like, I made an extra hundred k because I helped my clients make an extra million. Like, that is so satisfying to me.

Well, yeah. And it's great. It's a great sales tool. I love actual numbers and saying these are the actual results that I got. Like, here's the real numbers.

Here's what happened. Here's the impact. And I think that's really powerful. But I also love the perspective that it was really about doubling down on your commitment to your clients and your commitment to run a business that was the right business for you and how you work and how you want to work. And I think that is underestimated as a, I guess, a determining factor of what kind of business you should run.

Yeah. I always say to my clients, like making money isn't the most important thing. It's how you make the money. I could be making, I probably could be making a lot more to be perfectly honest. If I had gone the do a big group program thing, it just wouldn't matter because I wouldn't be happy.

And like, why did all of us actually start our business? Cause we actually want to feel like happy and lit up and make the money. And so the how is so freaking important in terms of it matching your personality. Think for some people like the big scale launches, and so I have plenty of clients whose personality that epically matches, but like, I think that we just don't take into account enough, like what is the thing that makes this not feel like a job? Because then the money is like an extra bonus.

Yep. So what are you planning to do in terms of scaling after this? How has this changed your approach to scaling? Are you at a you're going to hit capacity and stick with your clients that you've got and continue to grow their revenue? Or are there other other ways that you're looking at approaching this?

I feel like I'm now in the practice. This is like a little bit woo, but it's relevant. Like, I just always believe like a divine download is coming because I had such an epic experience with being like, I will be a one on one person and then being in the bath tub and just finding the answer. Basically every year in my business, I always tell myself, it's always this time of year, it's always around now, I'm always like, a divine download is coming. And I don't know what it is yet, but something else will come.

Last year it was that I decided to do my podcast. And basically what I do on my podcast is I just record six months of coaching someone. And that was like totally divine download idea, like, you know, just one of those things. So anyway, like TBD, but in terms of the scalability plan, obviously, like, I could just cap it in terms of, like, we're growing because our clients' revenue is growing every year. Right?

And so I think that that is a trajectory that, like, is really unlimited, but I'm also testing it and doing it in another model, which is a mastermind model with percentages. So I have eight people right now in a mastermind where we do percentages from that too.

Oh, interesting.

And that's been really, really amazing too. So in some ways it's like scalable on many levels, but the revenue percentage is going to continue to be something that's really present. And I think it will be the thing that continues to grow our revenue too.

No, I absolutely think that. And I think it does allow you to double down on the clients that you have where so often when we're stuck with fixed rate kind of engagements that aren't necessarily tied to the success or the results that we're seeing for clients. There's this kind of tapping out with a specific client where, you know, if, if they came in fifteen years ago when your rates were really, really low, you know, you have to offload them or get them onto a new more play. If your rates change, you are then compelled to either find new clients or bump the clients that you have. And I love that this kind of model allows you to continue reinvesting in that partnership, continue reinvesting in the business and the results that you've already seen without feeling that pressure to constantly be renegotiating in order to raise your rates or hit your revenue goals.

I really like how you said that. I think that's a really great point, which is I feel like it actually lets you almost like put your attention on the scale instead of on the sale. Right. And so I feel like I get to invest a lot of my attention in the skill of coaching and growth and the things that I'm like most ethically interested in. Right.

Because that other piece is taking care of itself in a new way. So I think that's a perfect way to say it.

One of the most powerful levers in the Calmer framework is business design. And that can look a lot of different ways. It can be about designing the delivery of your service to be easier for you to deliver. But like Lacey, it can also look like thoughtfully engineering your pricing model. While something like revenue sharing won't necessarily work for all industries or all businesses, it is a unique way to grow your business without creating a bigger burden.

It's kind of the perfect encapsulation of what a calmer business could look like. Because sometimes engineering comb isn't about recreating the wheel or burning the whole thing down. Sometimes it's just a calibration or a tweak in the right place that can make all the difference. Lacey's change to how she was charging for her services is a great example of a small tweak or a recalibration towards Calm, and it's one that makes a lot of sense for both her and her clients. Lacey benefits because she can grow her revenue without necessarily taking on more clients and reducing her bandwidth, and her clients get to mitigate some of the risk of working with a new provider, which is a huge win for them.

Maybe your business isn't quite the right fit to do a revenue share. It's really easiest to implement in businesses that help folks directly increase their revenue. But often, we're really just generally setting our pricing based on a default decision, whether that's the standard for your industry or what you think you're supposed to charge. So something to consider is thinking more creatively about potentially how to align your pricing to help you build margins or align your pricing so that your incentives and your clients' incentives are more in sync. That can be a really important aspect of more proactively calibrating your business design lever towards calm and away from the default.

And if that's something where maybe you're getting a little bit stuck and you don't have any creative ideas in your pocket, I can help. If you need some inspiration, you can grab my Calmer service design swipe file at the link in the show notes. It's got about 60 plus different examples of services delivered in different ways and priced in different ways that can serve inspiration for you. Lacey is one of those examples. Or if you need a little bit more support or customized ideas, we can work together one on one to come up with a pricing model that works for you and helps you build margins and engineer coal.

You can grab my services guide at beyondmargins.com/services or at the link in the show notes to get all the details about how we could potentially work together. And until next time, stay calm. Hi.