From 30+ Hourly Clients to ONE $12K Retainer: Mandy's Spotlight

Working nights. Working weekends. Working into the cracks of your life. Tracking every minute for 30+ clients. Watching your effective rate drop every time you get faster at your job.

If that is your current reality, this episode is the mirror you need.

This week on Serve Scale Soar, I sit down with Mandy, a Canadian funnel designer and Strategist Society member, who pulled off one of my favorite kinds of transformations. She went from $10K hourly months (and full-on burnout) to one $12,000/month retainer client, a $19K best month, and a $130K year in 2025, all while working around 30 hours a week. Same brain. New container.

We get into the exact moment it finally clicked for her at Strategist Summit Live, the boring (and consistent) Marketing Minutes strategy that landed her dream client out of a free Facebook Group, and the unexpected champagne client problem nobody warns you about when you finally get your time back.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why hourly pricing is a pay cut every time you get better at your craft (and the math behind it)
• The Strategist Summit moment when one sentence from another member finally cracked Mandy open
• The exact Marketing Minutes strategy Mandy ran during our 30-day challenge (hint: Facebook Groups are NOT dead)
• How she pitched and landed a $12K/month retainer from a free Facebook Group post
• The "champagne client problem" of suddenly having time and not knowing what to do with it
• Why you should build your retainer floor BEFORE the scalable offer
• Why Strategist Society works for funnel builders and consultants, not just ad managers
• What actually moved the needle inside the program (and what Mandy did NOT consume)

Mentioned in this episode:

• Apply for Strategist Society: thestrategistsociety.com
• DM the keyword MANDY to @brandimowles on Instagram for the lightning recap
• For early-stage ad managers: conversionsforclients.com

Ready to scale past $10K months?

Strategist Society is the room where high-level service providers (ad managers, funnel builders, consultants, OBMs, copywriters) scale to $20K, $30K, and $50K months while working under 25 hours a week. If you are ready to drop hourly pricing for good and want a coach in your corner who will quote the bigger number until your nervous system catches up, head to thestrategistsociety.com and apply. We will hop on a call, do a full business audit, and figure out if we are a fit.

Loved this episode?

Screenshot it, tag @brandimowles on Instagram, and share it with one service provider friend who is still stuck on hourly. That is how more women find their way out of the hourly trap.

Now go do the dang thing.

Follow the Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/serve-scale-soar/id1477998650

Follow Brandi on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandimowles

Follow Brandi on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Brandiandcompany

Transcript

Mandy Spotlight

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Brandi: [00:00:00] Hello, Serve Scale Soar family. Oh my goodness, I'm beyond excited, 'cause these are my favorite top f- type of episodes. You are gonna hear from one of our Strategist Society members, Mandy, and I cannot wait for you to hear her story, because so many of our people are ads people, and Mandy may do a little bit of ads, but that is not her primary thing.

So I'm excited for you to hear Mandy's story, where she's been with her business, and where she is going. So Mandy, thank you so much for being here. Tell my audience who you are as a person, and then a little bit about your business. 

Mandy: Yeah. So I live in Canada with my husband and my three kids under six and our dog.

I worked a lot of worked a lot over the years, so I don't have a ton of hobbies, I wouldn't say. But I h- I love a good Friday movie night with our family or, just hanging out and doing stuff. We have lots of fun activities and stuff like that, so that's a little bit about me personally. And as a business owner, I design [00:01:00] funnels, and I do a lot of consulting on conversion rate optimization and funnel reviews. 

Brandi: I love this. So take us back to maybe a year ago, and h- before joining Strategist Society, and what did your business look like?

What services were you offering? How many clients were you working with? Tell us all the dirty details. 

Mandy: Yeah. Right before starting Strategist Society, I was I would say burnt out at that point. I was working with probably 30 or more clients working hourly packages. I was working in the evening and in the daytime and on the weekends sometimes.

And I was just doing all of the things. So I was doing a lot of tech, I was doing design. And I was charging a decent hourly rate, but the hourly, my time was tied to how much effort I was putting in at that time. 

Brandi: And one thing that is about you, Mandy, is like I am always someone like you can't... And I don't say you [00:02:00] can't, but it's hard to get to $10,000 months on hourly, but you were doing that.

But, so you w- people when they say "I've done that. I can get there," you can, but at what cost? And also, as a systems person, as a tech, it's kinda like- But I can handle more because I have systems in place, but then you find yourself working all the time. And I remember when you were at the Strategist Summit Live, you had a big aha moment that was like, oh.

And it's one that you've heard over and over, but it took that one room to like... for it to sink in. So will you share like what that moment looked like and what it was that really changed things for you? 

Mandy: Yeah. I was... Yes. I was working a lot of I was working with a lot of clients and, and that comes with tra- like when you're doing hourly, it comes with tracking your time.

And like even though I had systems in place as a systems person, it still was like I was working so much. So yeah, at the Strategist Summit, [00:03:00] I like beyond what Brandi has... Like beyond what you've always taught me and talked to me about I had a few people, Brittany specifically, come up to me and say "You're charging hourly, so you're essentially charging the...

Like you're charging $200 where someone else is charging 3,000 for that same thing just because you're fast and efficient at it." And I was like, "Yes, fair." And just like hearing the numbers hearing the numbers and knowing that like my time is worth more, it just like really hit hard, and shifted from there.

Brandi: And I think that's like really important. And I say it, but I think how sometimes you have to hear the same thing in multiple ways. I always say you are literally taking a pay cut as you get better at your services because the better you get, the quicker you move. So that means as you gain skill level, instead of charging more, you end up charging less, and that's the big thing with it.

Hourly versus, packages. And so for her to [00:04:00] be like, oh, so essentially because you're so good at what you do, you're pa- like only getting paid 200 where someone else, who probably isn't even as good as you, is getting paid 3,000. And that truly does become the issue with hourly is the better you get, then the less money you make.

So in that moment, you know you need to make this shift. What did that shift look like for you? 

Mandy: Yeah. I think it sunk in at the Strategist Summit, and I just was taking in all of the things there. I loved that event. And so after that, I went home, and I just realized, now's the time to make that change, even though you had been telling me for so long.

So I... At that same time, you were running a challenge, a Marketing Minutes challenge, and I was like, "Okay, this is my time to just jump in and-" Take action on what I've, what I've been talking to Brandi about for so long. And so that's, that's when I did it, is I, I committed every day. [00:05:00] I did every single day of the challenge, and that's where things kinda changed.

Brandi: And so what Mandy's talking about is in Strategist Society we do these challenges, and they're always challenges like right when I know everyone needs it. And so it's... We've done standards of excellence challenges. We've done marketing minute challenge. We've done posting challenges, and they always build so much momentum.

And so Mandy's talking about marketing minute challenge and going all-in, really intentional, for 30 days on your marketing, and that builds such a huge momentum. So one, where were you... What were you doing for your marketing minutes, first off, 'cause I know everyone's gonna wanna know that, and then two, what services were you promoting at that time?

Mandy: Yeah, so for my marketing minutes, I focused my attention on Facebook Groups and a big one being paid groups, paid programs that I'm part of. And so that was m- mainly what I focused on. I sent a few cold emails here and there, but I, I [00:06:00] wasn't about really the volume game with my touchpoints in that sense.

It was more just I know where my people typically come from, which is Facebook Groups. So that's where kind of I focused my attention. And I wasn't... Yeah, I wasn't making very many a week, but I was consistent with them and I followed up on them. I had a tracker for them. That's that's where I focused my time.

Brandi: And I love that you say that, 'cause so many people are like, "Facebook Groups are dead. This way is dead. This way..." And it's no, they all work, as long as you're consistent. Usually the problem is people aren't consistent. And you know which groups actually produce, and I think that's the other thing, is like you're tracking these.

You know which groups your people are coming from. And also, let's talk about the type of clients that you landed. Yeah. And so let's talk about that and what package you were offering, 'cause it was no longer an hourly package. 

Mandy: Yeah, so as I was... you did ask me that question, and I didn't answer it. But the package I was offering at the time when I was doing marketing minutes was what I had typically been offering as well funnel builds and [00:07:00] consulting.

But the client, the one big client that I landed during the marketing challenge was, It was a $12,000 client a month ongoing, and it was for consulting, so they're paying me for my brain. And I landed them via a Facebook Group, just a free Facebook Group. They actually posted a job opportunity, and then I reached out to them and I said, "I'd like to chat, chat with you about..."

how I structure my time and and see if this would be a good fit. And so we got on and they... I, I pitched what I thought I was worth monthly and they went for it,

Brandi: and I love that. So we went from hourly to then holy bananas, $12,000 a month- ... for one client, and that's a big jump. And so I'm sure that there was all the thoughts and feelings going around that.

So what were you thinking and feeling in those moments? 

Mandy: At first it was a bit of panic, because I [00:08:00] did have all of my previous clients still. And so I was like, how am I gonna transition to working more a little bit more time focused on this client and getting, and off-boarding some of my own clients.

So there was a bit of that. But I was so relieved that I had joined Strategist Society and that that was the push that got me over the hourly packages and just into, people paying me for my brain and just I could see the mental space and the space on my calendar kind of freeing up with that.

Brandi: Which then once that happens, then we have all new problems. Yeah. It's "Okay, so now what do I do with all these clients that I have? What do I do with the free time?" 'Cause we went from working all the time to now oh wow, okay, we have some free time. And I remember having this conversation with you, and I don't think people understand that people want more time, but when they get more time, they actually don't know what to do with it.

So how have you navigated that? 

Mandy: I'm still navigating it. It's really hard for me actually. I because I [00:09:00] had so many clients at a time I was working in the evening and all, all the time and paying attention to, like, how many c- hours does this client have left? And there was just a lot of extra admin as well involved with that.

And so when I transitioned to having one bigger client that I didn't have to track my time and that I, gave my strategy and then someone else did the implementation it was really hard for me. I pulled out my computer a lot. I've, I've messaged Brandi plenty of times being like, "I'm, I'm anxious.

I don't know what to do because I, I have all this extra time." And so yeah, it's, it's still a work in progress, but it was, it was really hard to transition. 

Brandi: And I'll say, I feel like I have- to a sense mastered this, and there are still times where I struggle with this, especially if I'm super excited about something that we're working on and I had to catch myself, or I'm big on when something in the family is going on that feels heavy [00:10:00] diving more into work because that feels safe and I can control that.

And so even after all these years of working on that I still struggle with that, and I tell y'all to get a hobby. Get a hobby. And this is why I have so many hobbies that I do all of them halfway. I like embroidering and Procreate, and as long as it's not sourdough or something that needs me constantly, then I'm good.

But I think that is a common thought, that people are like, "Oh, I'm gonna get all this time back 'cause I've streamlined my business." But then we have this whole other mental game of "Okay, I've always worked really hard for the money. Now I'm making more money and I'm working less, so I have this time, and then also I feel like I should be busy."

And so that's something that's really hard to navigate period, no matter where you are in business, and that's your new champagne problems. We talk about- Yeah ... champagne clients, they have champagne problems. You're at that point. Now you have champagne problems. What do I do with my time? And so as you're navigating that, what's been your biggest month?

'Cause you have one client [00:11:00] at 12,000, so what's been your biggest month? 

Mandy: I think this... so my newer client started in November, and since November it was probably about 19,000. That's incredible. Yeah. And how many 

Brandi: hours do you think that you're working? Like, when you did the 19,000, how many hours were you working per week?

Mandy: Probably 

Brandi: 30. 30 or so. Okay. Yeah. And so where are you hoping to get? What are your goals right now in terms of monthly revenue and hours worked? 

Mandy: Initially it was 20,000. I also run a platform, so I'm wanting to get more members on there. And so now my, my sights are a little bit higher than 20,000, 'cause I'm almost reaching that now.

I would say 25- Oh ... 

Brandi: thousand a month. Yeah. I feel like we could do better than that. Yeah. But it's one of those things where it's- You know, you have that cash floor with your retainer. Now we can start creating the second revenue stream. A lot of people like to put the cart before the horse. They don't have their [00:12:00] floor, like the safety of our retainer, and then they do it.

But now you're doing it, and we have this other, more scalable way as well to grow. And then you've hit a new belief barrier, which means "Oh, 20,000's too low. Now what's next?" And that's fun. That's when business becomes really fun. And okay, we've talked about Strategist Society, where your business is, your pricing, clients, hours, all that fun stuff.

You have a lot in Strategist Society at your disposal. All the resources, the community, Voxer, all that. What do you think are the one or two things that have really propelled your business forward the most? 

Mandy: I think it's, I think it's the accountability of being able to chat with you over Voxer and get to the weekly calls.

It's really important for me when I join coaching programs or masterminds or things like that, that that I attend the weekly calls or I, I take advantage of what's there. So those are big. Those are big for [00:13:00] me. 

Brandi: Okay. So I nerd out over our calls because one of my favorite things is we get to talk about high level things in Strategist Society.

It's not like beginner level stuff. It is more high level. So when you're jumping on these calls, what do you think you get the most value of? Whether it's we do a training, or people's hot seats, or the open Q&As, what about the calls is like, "Oh, this is my thing"? Because a lot of people don't wanna be on more calls.

Mandy: Yeah. Honestly, it's all of it. Your coaching is obviously always just spot on, and I like that you're just direct about things, and so that's a huge thing for me. The other people's questions on the calls, because there's... You bring in a higher caliber of- service provider, it's really interesting to hear everyone's, everyone's take on things.

The hot seats are always I learn so much from, and the trainings are always awesome. We get lots of bonus things as [00:14:00] well. I, it's just I can't pinpoint one thing, honestly. 

Brandi: Okay. So I love this. There's, there's a lot in there. And for people who love to learn, it is a cool place to be. And even for people who don't, they get to plug into different ways, whether it's Fox or whatever.

So okay, Mandy, so we've talked about you're crushing it. We got over the hourly, which is huge. That is huge. What did your 2025 year end up looking like in terms of revenue, and what did that look like compared to the previous year? 

Mandy: Yeah, I think I ended at it was over six figures. I think it was about 120, 130,000 by the end of 2025.

And then previous to that it was... Like, I've increased it probably 50% every time, every year, so I keep, I keep growing. And this year was different. From 2025 to 2026, it's different though because growing doesn't mean attaching that to how much I'm working. I'm not working more to make that much [00:15:00] more, whereas that was the story from when I started my business in 2019 up until 2025 was just "Okay, I'll work more, I'll take on more clients, and then I'll make more money."

And now it's, and now it's shifting the other way, which is really fun. 

Brandi: That is fun. I think that's more valuable than anything. Let's grow the revenue but also lessen our time. That's the sweet spot. And so Mandy, this has been so fun. I wanna go a little bit deeper, but before I do that, there are people who are right where you are.

They're either doing tech funnels. They're like Brandi only teaches ad people," or "I don't know if I... This will work for me." For those people who are sitting on the fence and thinking about joining Strategist Society, what would you say to that person? 

Mandy: Yeah. I I would say just to trust other people who have been there, like Brandi and, and put it, put yourself all in on something.

You know that I'm, I'm a big, big on I don't shy away from investing in myself. And so just [00:16:00] having you that, that's been there and the community aspect. Just invest in yourself, and then you'll see those rewards over time. 

Brandi: And I think that's one thing I invest in my- Like business as well.

Like education is always one of our top expenses, and I'm okay with that. But I also think that you're someone who goes in and you take action, like you apply what you're learning. It's just not about consuming, and I think a lot of people are looking for something to come in and y- they think they have to use every aspect of the program, and you're someone who doesn't use every aspect of the program, and you still get value.

And I think that's where a lot of people in the online space, they're halting their growth because, one, it doesn't matter if you're investing in me or a different coach, but they're not investing in the right things. They're buying like stuff that's not gonna move the needle because they think "I need a website," or, "I need this," or like whatever it is, and they're staying stuck.

Or, two, they get into something, and then they think they have to use everything to get their money's worth. But I've [00:17:00] always come from the philosophy if I can get one thing out of it that makes my investment back, I am good. I could care less if I use 90% of it. 

Mandy: And you're really great at that too in s- in the sense of like I don't need to come in and use everything because your like strategic guidance is "No, focus your energy here, and and that's the next step for you."

And so the customized piece of like you working with each person is also vital to that I think too. Like I could go and watch everything and, and take in all of the parts of all of the programs, but your guidance there is, is key. 

Brandi: And as we're about to move our platform to our community platform...

It's funny. Janessa was like, "You have 90 videos to review." And I was like- ... "What?" And so when I tell people, "Do not come in and try to watch everything," I seriously mean it. Do not come in and watch 90 videos because I don't even wanna watch 90 videos. And so that doesn't serve you. And take [00:18:00] action. No matter if you join our program or another one, it's about taking action.

And Mandy, you are someone who takes action, and I think that's a big contributor to where you are because a lot of people wouldn't have had the guts to quote 12,000, and you did. And so that is why you are where you are because you're brave, you take action, and you do the dang thing. And that's really...

And you are consistent. You did your marketing minutes. You're consistent, and it's like that boring stuff that gets people to where they wanna go. It's not like the big flashy stuff. 

Mandy: Yeah. And I think too like a hesitation I had going into Strategist Society was that, I'm not an ad manager, and I thought, it's m- potentially only for ad managers.

But in more conversations with you you were like, "No, that's not, that's not all of Strategist Society." And being in there with lots of ad managers but also people doing all kinds of things is just seeing things from different angles is unbelievably helpful in all areas. [00:19:00] 

Brandi: And yes, we do have a lot of ad managers because we have conversions for clients, which teaches ad managers.

But what people don't realize is we had group of over 1,000 service providers. That was my first thing, serve Scale Soar. 1,000 service providers that weren't niched down to ad managers, and that was, like, the first baby that I created digitally. And that's where I spent a lot of time helping people get to six figures before just teaching ad managers.

And so yes, I do think a lot of people have that notion that it is only ad managers, but a service-based business is a service-based business. It doesn't matter if you're an ad manager, a funnel builder, a consultant. We have podcast managers at OBMs, and it's all the strategy that goes behind, it's all the same.

Mandy: And I've been part of most of your programs. Yeah. And I knew that was the right fit is moving into Strategist Society for sure because you have all of that. You have all of that background and have coached people along all of those things,

Brandi: And so Mandy, this has been [00:20:00] so good.

I've had so much fun, but I do have one more question for you, okay? So you're in Canada, so I'm not gonna ask you what your favorite taco is. But I am gonna ask you, when you come to the US, this is a very Mandy question, when you come to the US, you love to go to Target. What is it about Target that is just "Man, I gotta hit up a Target when I'm in 

Mandy: the US"?

I... okay, so Target came here to, came to Canada for a short period of time and failed epically. And so there's just something different that hits about going to a Target in the US every time I'm there. You... It's just, like, all of the kids' clothes. Actually, that's the main piece is the kids' clothes are we don't really have any like that, and, like, all of the clothes that my kids pick out throughout the day are from Target.

And there's just some things in the US that I can get at Target that we can't get here. 

Brandi: That's so funny, 'cause I, my children go through [00:21:00] clothes. It... And with Bodhi, it was funny because when we were in Florida, we had a neighbor whose son was a year older than Bodhi, so we got all his hand-me-downs, and it was great.

So for the first two years of Bodhi's life it was just hand-me-downs and we didn't have to buy any clothes for him. And now that we live in Georgia, we don't have that friend, and now I have to buy him clothes and I'm like, "Ugh." And I try to I'll order something off Walmart or Amazon, and those kids have rips in their knees within a week of their clothes.

But then if you get it from Target, it just it's good. It lasts- I, I love it ... so much longer. 

Mandy: It's amazing. I will always buy kids' clothes there, so mostly that. But yeah, I just love... I also just enjoy going to different stores that we don't have here,

Brandi: I get that. I like a good stroll at Target. But it was funny because when Mandy came to Strategist Summit, she got to come to our Target, and I was like, "Mandy, this is a big one.

It's a Super Target. So get ready." So what was your thoughts of the [00:22:00] Super Target? 

Mandy: I loved it. Yeah. I, I think I was there for probably three hours, and then I went back the next day. I, yeah, I'm a bit of a Target fanatic, but... 

Brandi: So if you wanna visit a Target, Canton, Georgia, our Super Target ... is top-notch.

So Mandy, thank you so much for just coming on, sharing your story, and being honest and open about your numbers. I know it's gonna inspire so many women who are exactly where you were a year ago. And so thank you so much for being here. It's been so great. /

Thanks, Brandi. These episodes are seriously my favorite episodes. I love hearing the stories of our students and how they've used different aspects of our programs, different programs, and seen success, no matter if they're an ad manager, a funnel builder, or a marketing consultant. And y'all, that's exactly what Mandy did.

Went from hourly to charging $12,000 per month for a package with a [00:23:00] year-long contract. How freaking inspiring. So y'all, take Mandy's inspiration and go apply it to your business, 'cause here's what I know. When one person can do it, another person can, and that's why I love spotlighting our students, to show you what is possible for you.

So if you wanna be in a group with high-level service providers that are scaling without working countless hours, go on and head to thestrategistsociety.com and you can apply to work with us inside of Strategist Society. We're gonna jump on a quick call if I feel like you're a good fit. We're gonna go through your business.

I'm gonna do a full business audit, and then, and only then, if I feel like we can support you, I'll let you know what it looks like to work with us in Strategist Society, and if it's not a fit for you, you'll leave with clarity and knowing what your next steps are. So head to thestrategistsociety.com and go and apply for a call, and we'll see if you're a good fit and go from there.

Until next week, y'all, go out, serve your [00:24:00] clients, scale your business, and soar into the success you deserve