From CEO to Coach: Terri Levine’s Joy-First Business Shift

Dr. Terri Levine spent years climbing the corporate ladder, eventually becoming CEO of a national healthcare company with nearly 3,000 employees. But behind the title, she felt exhausted, disconnected, and deeply out of alignment. So she walked away—without a backup plan—and said yes to coaching, authenticity, and a business built around service.

In this episode, Terri shares how she:

• Went from speech pathologist to multi-million dollar entrepreneur
• Quit her CEO job with nothing but 5 weeks’ pay and a ton of faith
• Built a business by helping other women do the same
• Ditched hustle culture and found clarity through action
• Learned to lead with heart—not ego

Whether you’re craving more freedom, stuck in analysis paralysis, or trying to figure out your next chapter, this one’s for you.

Connect with Terri:
🌐 heartrepreneur.com

Topics we cover:

• Reinventing your life in midlife
• The power of collaboration over competition
• Unlearning corporate conditioning
• Creating a business that fits your life
• Why “just start” is better than “get it perfect”

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Transcript

From CEO to Coach: Terri Levine’s Joy-First Business Shift​

[00:01:24] Penny Fitzgerald: it's great to meet you Terry. I'm so grateful to for this opportunity and um, would love to get to know you a little bit better here. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. So, um, tell my listeners a little bit about you and what you do.

[00:01:39] Dr. Terri Levine: So I have been a business consultant for 30 something years now, and I primarily work with entrepreneurs to help them live well and earn well. So first, they create a life design plan so that every area of their life is juicy and delicious and [00:02:00] fulfilling as they desire. Then we create their business, their current business or their new business around that plan so they can transform a lot of lives in a lot less time and make a lot more money.

Well, that sounds fantastic. I 

[00:02:16] Penny Fitzgerald: enjoy it. I love it. That's, that is fantastic. So how did you come to your career? I mean, or how did you find it or how did it find 

[00:02:24] Dr. Terri Levine: you? Good question. Thank you. So I started out initially right out college with a master's degree in speech language pathology. I opened up a speech clinic.

That was my first business, and that's really where I learned how to run and operate a business. I didn't know a thing from college. I sold that business and I opened numerous businesses along the way and just kept selling them. And then for five years, I took a stint at CEO as a national healthcare company, and I spent five miserable years there.

I was unhappy every day. I just [00:03:00] didn't fit. Then a little over 30 years ago, I made a decision to start being a business coach, consultant, life coach, life consultant. Went on to get my PhD in clinical psychology, and just knew in my heart that that was what I was meant to do and I've never looked back.

Wow. Wow. That's, that is quite a journey. It is. It is. And a lot of learning along the way. Right. Learning what doesn't resonate, what I didn't enjoy, and then finally figuring out where I felt at home, so to speak. 

[00:03:31] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Right. So in, you were in a corporate role before in healthcare? 

[00:03:38] Dr. Terri Levine: Yeah. I was CEO of a national healthcare company.

[00:03:40] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. That's no pressure, 

[00:03:42] Dr. Terri Levine: huh? My gosh. I had, uh, 2,800 employees. We had just gone through a merger. There was a system coming from Medicare called Prospective Payment System, which basically meant that the earnings for the company would be down about 60%. I just didn't want to be there. [00:04:00] And I also saw the writing on the wall, and I was right about seven or eight months later, most healthcare companies in doing what we did, rehabilitation services went bankrupt and they're all gone.

Um, so I, I just knew in my heart, this is been due every day. I'm not making an impact in the world. 

[00:04:21] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So how did you. When you first had that inkling that, okay, I gotta get outta here or remember it. Yes, I'm sure it's kind of, it's one of those, I, I've talked to a lot of female entrepreneurs who have broken out of corporate, myself included, and, and there's just always a moment where, you know, and maybe you don't know what you're going to do afterwards, but you know you've gotta do something.

[00:04:52] Dr. Terri Levine: I'll tell you when that happened. I can remember this very clearly. I was miserable. I wasn't like planning to leave. I was [00:05:00] miserable. And then at 11 o'clock at night, working on budgets in my office, I've been there since six in the morning, um, one of the members of the board came in and said, listen, I'm gonna give you the numbers that the budgets have to be and don't continue working on them.

I said, excuse me? He said, yeah, we have to reach these numbers to keep our stock right. I said, in today's economy with prospective payment, it's not possible. And he said, I'm telling you, just use these numbers. You can go home and write these numbers down. And I went home, I did not write the numbers down, and the next day I just stood my ground.

It said, if you wanna redo my budget with fake numbers, here you go. I won't sign it. Wow. They redid the budget with fake numbers. And I didn't yet know Penny. Exactly. I just knew I had to leave. I had no idea what I was going to do. Mm-hmm. The universe is like magical and Oh yeah. [00:06:00] I, um, decided to go to a MINDBODY spirit expo in Boston, and I was here in Philadelphia area.

I got on a plane, quick half hour flight, sat next to a woman and I said, you know, hey, what are you going to business or pleasure and what do you do? This is 30 something years ago and she said, I'm a coach. Never heard of it. Right? So board what team? And she's like, no, no, no. On that 30 minute flight, as soon as she started describing it to me, I went, I'm supposed to be doing this.

And the first person that I met when I was checking into the hotel was a woman. We were chatting at the front desk and she said, oh, I'm so excited to be here. Are you here for the expo? I said, yeah. She said, oh, I'm a life coach. I went, oh, universe, I totally got you right. Went to my room, went online, found a coach, training school, enrolled in, as they say, the rest is history.

Wow. That's a very cool story. Thank for letting me share. I appreciate it. 

[00:06:58] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, absolutely. [00:07:00] Okay, so you were at this expo and you enrolled in this, um, program to become a coach, and that was 30 ish years ago? Yes. Wow. So, okay. How did, what was the path after that? How did you. Navigate like what direction to go, like your specialty and all of that.

How did you find that? 

[00:07:21] Dr. Terri Levine: So I, it, I will say that it took me three months to quit. I carried a ation letter with me for three months until one day my coach went, okay. My mom had passed. Do you want your think your mom wants you to be miserable or happy? Such a powerful coaching goal. I couldn't even answer and I resigned the next day.

Like it was the most wow, powerful question she could have asked. And then I thought, okay, well who am I gonna coach and what am I gonna do? And so I went ahead and I started just contacting everyone that I knew in that same industry that I was leaving saying, um, Hey, I'm doing this thing called coaching.

I'd [00:08:00] love to talk to you about it. See if I can help you. I know you're also miserable. And I literally spent the next 30 days just chatting with people and I had 30 clients in 30 days. Wow. And then I refined along the way. Yeah. 'cause at the time I was just doing any kind of coaching and I'm like, no career isn't, it Did a little bit of sales.

I did a lot of corporate and then I'm like, Ugh. Right back in corporate, I want out. And then I started working with entrepreneurs and in particular female entrepreneurs, and I went, these are my people. 

[00:08:32] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:08:33] Dr. Terri Levine: We've been doing that ever since. I love it. Well, don't you feel that action brings clarity? A hundred percent.

Yeah. And I call my clients that you want Absolutely. Get it through action. Yes. 

[00:08:44] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Well, and it's hard in the beginning because, well, our nervous systems are trying to keep us safe and we wanna be comfortable, and we don't maybe see all the possibilities. Or maybe there's too many, there are too many possibilities and we [00:09:00] don't know which direction to go, but just go.

Just take one step. 

[00:09:04] Dr. Terri Levine: I think that's very good advice, like incredibly sane advice. 'cause I hear so much bizarre advice nowadays. You know, I, I hear people just saying the strangest things like that people can do that. I'm like, and, and you're going to get clients from that and you're gonna know your niche through that.

I just find it so important. Just start. Just get in, start doing it, and you will also get clarity on who do I love working with? Who don't I? What kind of, mm-hmm. Do I like doing events, retreats in person? Do I wanna do it in an office virtually? And, and the cool thing is it's your own business. You get to make all these decisions.

So it's, it's really something pretty phenomenal that most people don't have. 

[00:09:46] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Well, and it can be scary though, too, right? Because Yeah, in the beginning, I mean, you're coming from a corporate salary to, oh my God, where is, where is the money coming from? 

[00:09:57] Dr. Terri Levine: So I'll burn the curtain and be really [00:10:00] transparent.

[00:10:00] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes, please 

[00:10:01] Dr. Terri Levine: wait. Corporate, right? Mm-hmm. Give my citation letter. And the policy is they walk you out the door when you resign and you're in a high position. So I already knew that. So before I turned the letter in, I cleaned out my office. The only thing sitting on my desk was my cup of coffee. And back in the day you faxed it, right?

So I faxed it over. Somebody came flying into my office, one of the people on my team, and, um, he's like, we're not really accepting your letter. I said, actually, you don't really have a choice. Like, I'm done. I, I can't ethically and morally stand with this company anymore. And he said, we know you're going to a competitor.

And I thought, I'm not gonna say anything. Because I, I'm not gonna tell them what I'm doing and where I'm going, and so they, you know, you need to leave and I get five weeks pay. That's the policy. So I get to start my business with five weeks of full pay. Okay. By the way, in week three, they called me and they begged me to come back or be a consultant.

I'm like, mm-hmm. [00:11:00] Like not happening. So I'm driving home and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I'm so free. I'm, I'm singing Leonard Skynyrd song, free the Bird right on the, and then I walk into my house, like reality hits. Oh my gosh. After five weeks, I'm not gonna have any money coming in and listen to myself talk.

I have mm-hmm. Masters, master's. I have a PhD. I could be a speech pathology. I'm like. I guess I could work at McDonald's. Oh, that was my self-talk. I had to get myself back in alignment because yeah, I had that moment of, 

[00:11:37] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah, panic. 

[00:11:39] Dr. Terri Levine: I. Then, you know what I did? I took action. I started calling people and talking to people, and then as soon as I got my first client, I can't even explain it.

It was like I knew I was doing the right thing. You're 

[00:11:50] Penny Fitzgerald: back 

[00:11:50] Dr. Terri Levine: one person. 

[00:11:51] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Well, and it can be. Part of the difficulty, I feel like in coming out of that self-talk is [00:12:00] you've kind of been beat down for a while, right? By all of the corporate stuff that you have to do or the Yeah, just to be in, you start to self-doubt you.

You doubt yourself, you doubt your decisions, you doubt what you've been doing. Am I really capable of doing it on my own? 

[00:12:19] Dr. Terri Levine: Yeah. What was interesting is that I had so many businesses along the way that had been super successful. I had sold each one for one, for a million, several, four millions. 

[00:12:31] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. 

[00:12:32] Dr. Terri Levine: So I had all this experience in track record as an entrepreneur, and when I told my husband, you know, oh, I came home.

I was like, I could work at McDonald's. He just started laughing. He is like, you're kidding, right? I'm like. No. First of all, I didn't need money. We, we were financially set. I panicked over having no money because I didn't have corporate salary. And then I panicked, like I don't know how to build a business.

And I found that so interesting that that was still some [00:13:00] old stories and programs running. 

[00:13:02] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:13:02] Dr. Terri Levine: But I did have to consciously work on shutting down. 

[00:13:06] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Right, right. Well, and there are so many other considerations for women too, that. If you're in a a corporate job, it feels safe because you have a salary, you have benefits insurance, vacation time, you know, all those things.

But is it really secure? You know, not usually. 

[00:13:28] Dr. Terri Levine: Never. As I said, that company went bankrupt. I can't remember. It was 6, 7, 8 months after, and the person who eventually replaced me, you know, thought she was moving into a position of security and then was. Totally out. So the only true security I really know we have is when we control our own future and our own lives.

We wanna make more money, take on more clients, change your fees. I mean, there's a million different things here. The thing for me is that I've designed my life and I've designed my business. [00:14:00] So everything is the way I want it, and it's really freeing. 

[00:14:05] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Wow. That's fantastic. Very cool. Okay, so I gotta ask you some of your other businesses that led up to that.

What, what kinds of industries were you in? Or what, what did you do in those companies? 

[00:14:19] Dr. Terri Levine: Oh, I did so many things. So I, the speech language pathologist. Yeah. And I was just so ignorant. I knew nothing about business. Getting my master's in speech pathology was all about how to treat and diagnose patients.

[00:14:32] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. 

[00:14:33] Dr. Terri Levine: I open up a speech clinic, you need doctors to refer. And I'm also transplanted because my husband and I moved from the east coast to the Midwest. We know no one and I can't get any doctors to even talk to me. And after a month I'm like, I'm gonna run outta money. 'cause I had just enough money to pay the rent for this clinic and buy speech pathology equipment.

I finally talked one doctor, like I begged, and he sent me three patients, sent him [00:15:00] reports. They were happy. He sent more, and then I kept going to every doctor. Well, doctor L camera is ref referring, and they're like, oh, okay. So a guy walks into my, just imagine this walks into my clinic. We're in the Midwest, most people wearing jeans and overalls.

And this I get a, a, a message from my receptionist. There's a guy that just walked in and he is a Blue Navy suit, and he was asking for Mrs. Levine. No one called me that I'm like. Oh my God. I was scared of death. 

And he said, um, yeah, I wanna buy your clinic. Hey, he gives me his business card. I go home. My husband, who's a financial advisor and way different in business than me says. Call the guy up.

We're gonna meet with him at lunch and you're not gonna speak. Oh, you see, that's hard, right? We met for lunch and he purchased my business, and this is in 1982 for one wow. Million dollars I [00:16:00] Holy buckets. My husband, that money, we had nothing and he invested that. Literally changed our lives with that. So then I said to my husband, well, well, now what do I do because I, I don't have anything to do.

And he said, figure out what's important to you. And I grew up very, very poor. And then my father got a job when I was in fourth grade that took us from being poor to living in an upper middle class neighborhood that I was so uncomfortable in. And the first time I went to someone's home. Another child, the person opened the door and was in like a maid's uniform.

Never saw that other than tv. Uhhuh said, Andy will be right down. Come into the library now. The only library that I've ever seen was like the new public library, right? I went in a room paneled art everywhere, with art lights on the wall. I was beyond intimidated, so I said to my husband, mark. I wanna bring art to the middle class so no one [00:17:00] ever feels that again.

He said, okay, figure it out. So I started a home art show company that became crazy successful and basically we brought art, beautiful art that I traveled all around the world to get from artists. Into middle class families. We shared the art. They had other guests over. We talked about the art, how to decorate, how to design.

I framed the art. I, when I say we, I made my husband quit his job and join me because I, oh my gosh. So we sold that after about eight years. Um, and then I got really lucky, and this is luck. I started a rehabilitation company with two other gentlemen. I am serious. We basically slept in the office and worked day and night for about eight months.

We did not have lives. We did not sleep, barely ate. At the end of eight months, that company did 88. Million dollars. 

[00:17:57] Penny Fitzgerald: Holy cow. 

[00:17:58] Dr. Terri Levine: We were in the right [00:18:00] place at the right time with the idea. After the eighth month, I said, guys, I don't wanna live like this. Buy me out, please. I, I have to stop. Um, so that was a business along the way.

Then I had an Abundant Living Institute. I owned two different coach training schools that I sold, a business consulting institute that I sold. So I really started moving into more and more being in the business of transformation. 

[00:18:26] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. Well, and you have had entrepreneurship all along. How did you ha Okay, so coming from that, I have so many questions.

Oh, coming from that entrepreneurial spirit, working for yourself and building these businesses and puffing it out and grinding, okay, corporate is a grind, but, but what led you to corporate? How did you go from working for yourself to into a corporate role where you're coming in every day and reporting to someone else?

[00:18:59] Dr. Terri Levine: A three [00:19:00] letter word ego. Somehow I thought really swear to you being able to say I'm the CEO of this huge national healthcare company was somehow better than saying I'm the CEO of my own company and my dad was living with us than my mom had passed. I think that just made my dad really proud. So it was about like other Oh, okay.

And I told, I remember coming home, telling my husband after the first day there, I don't belong in a job. They don't want to hear my ideas. They don't want me to be, I didn't want to be in the office. I wanted to be out talking to the therapist, going to the nursing home. They didn't want that. I'm like, I don't think I belong here.

And yet, I stuck it out for five years and I'm being very, very sincere here. Every day for me was miserable. I was unhappy. I'm only five foot, I'm really tiny. I gained 60 pounds, so I weigh about a hundred. I weighed one 60 [00:20:00] on this tiny little body. I was just eating myself miserable in all seriousness.

And once I left, you know, the weight came off. My hair had been like falling out. 

[00:20:10] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh gosh. 

[00:20:11] Dr. Terri Levine: Everything changed. 

[00:20:14] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes those physical signs are the ones that creep up and you don't really see 'em happening. 'cause they're happening slowly, but, and you're part of it. Yeah. So you don't see it.

[00:20:25] Dr. Terri Levine: Yeah. 

[00:20:26] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Wow. 

[00:20:26] Dr. Terri Levine: So a friend of mine uses the expression that I love. He says, your ego is not your amigo. I look at that experience that's clever. It's really a good expression as being totally caught in my ego. Somehow outside of myself, I felt that this title made me important, and when I woke up to. Look how sad and unhappy I am.

I never wanted to talk to friends or family on weekends or go anywhere 

[00:20:54] Penny Fitzgerald: because I 

[00:20:55] Dr. Terri Levine: just like, I talk all week. I have people bothering me all week. I just wanna be alone. [00:21:00] I would sleep like hours and hours. That's depression. I just, yeah. Recognizing what was going on with it. 

[00:21:08] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Well, and part of that is your expectations, and that came from, you know, wanting to please your dad and wanting to be.

Wanting him to be proud of you. You know? Yeah. That's, we put so much on ourselves because of those, those internal and things from our, from our, when we were really little kids, even just stay with us for so long. 

[00:21:34] Dr. Terri Levine: Yeah. One of the things my dad and my mom told me that I had to literally deprogram was, you just work really hard your whole life.

Just put your head down and work and quote, someday you'll get to retire. So the first, the first book I wrote about 30 years ago is called Work Yourself Happy. 'cause my parents had embedded in me, like literally working myself sick. And it [00:22:00] just changed everything for me. Like getting that story and going, I'm not gonna live like that.

[00:22:05] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. I'm 

[00:22:06] Dr. Terri Levine: out for my parents. It didn't work out well. 

[00:22:09] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. That's partly generational. I feel like, you know, growing up through the depression and going through all of that rebuilding after World War ii, like my parents too. I know they, you, you just, that work ethic. Yeah. You know, you work and you, you grind.

Ugh. 

[00:22:28] Dr. Terri Levine: However, since you mentioned grind, I'm really sad. Mm-hmm. And I hope you don't mind me calling it this. I call it the bro mentality. Oh, come on bros. Let's, let's ring a bell. When we get a client, let's put up awards of how much money we make. I just do not like that energy. It's, 

[00:22:46] Penny Fitzgerald: thank you for saying that.

[00:22:48] Dr. Terri Levine: It's so transactional and it's 

[00:22:50] Penny Fitzgerald: same. Yeah. Not 

[00:22:51] Dr. Terri Levine: how I choose to live. Yeah. So, exactly. 

[00:22:53] Penny Fitzgerald: Gotta to be very, very clear on that. No, I am so on board with that. I love that you said that. 'cause it's just, it [00:23:00] doesn't work when, from a heart centered place. It's not in service of others. It's like it's comp competitive.

It's um. Yeah, it's, yeah, it doesn't, it's all that bro energy. It's, yeah. 

[00:23:18] Dr. Terri Levine: Well done. 

[00:23:21] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. And, you know, working together as a team to accomplish a goal that's fun. You know, cheering each other on, lifting each other up, helping each other achieve something together. In service of others, you know, 

[00:23:34] Dr. Terri Levine: that's in service of others.

You nailed it. 

[00:23:37] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, that is just a blast. And I feel like women are so in tuned to that. We are wired for that. And when we. Go into a corporate scenario, quite often we're put into that competitive against each other, and it's a pie and there's a zero sum game where you're going for that one [00:24:00] piece of pie and only one person can have it.

Like, no, no, no, no. It's not a pie. There's enough to go around. There's abundance. There is. There are so many things you could do with what, where your gifts lie and where your talents are. So find what works. Where, where can you fill a need? How can you be of service to others? And let's help you, let's support each other and, and lift each other up to serve each other.

[00:24:25] Dr. Terri Levine: Exactly how I feel. I, I love like communities, whether it's Facebook or LinkedIn or in-person events, when people are all supportive coming from abundance. And you know what? It doesn't matter if you make X dollars and someone else makes more or less. None of that is important. And as women. We really need to be cheerleaders for each other, especially today.

There's just so much going on in the entire world, and if I can make one person's day, one person's minute, I feel like [00:25:00] I'm contributing to the world. I was at the grocery store, I guess it was this past weekend. And the woman in front of me, I could just see she was really struggling. She had one little kid, she had a kid in the cart.

She was trying to put the food on. I said, I'll unpick your cart and put everything up there. And she looked at me like, why would someone do that? I'm like, you got your hands full. So I put all the stuff up there and um, she turned to me as she was leaving, she literally had a tear in her eye. Aw. She said.

I just don't find people being compassionate anymore, and you just made my day and I thought I did nothing. I did the littlest thing, and so I try to live in that way. Let's add value to each other and each other's lives, businesses, and let's not beat each other down. We're all sisters. 

[00:25:49] Penny Fitzgerald: Right? Right. Being collaboration with each other in support of each other, and incidentally, there's money to be made with that.

You know, it's not like. [00:26:00] You choose one or the other. You don't choose to be kind, so you're gonna stay poor. 

[00:26:06] Dr. Terri Levine: Exactly. Exactly. And the more, in my experience that you just open your heart without any attachment. I don't need anything reciproc reciprocally from her. So you just open your heart and, yeah.

Amazing to me. Just when I. Live more and more in this way. How much shows up in terms of amazing people, collaborations, partners, like the most amazing clients. I'm like, all I'm doing is just keeping my heart open and being the best person that I can possibly be. 

[00:26:41] Penny Fitzgerald: Right, right. Yeah. We, I think our business only grows at the speed that we do.

[00:26:46] Dr. Terri Levine: Hmm. I like that. Very well said. Yes, I agree. 

[00:26:49] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, we have to be open to change and open to learning new things and open to opportunities when they pop up. 

[00:26:58] Dr. Terri Levine: So I'm a continuous [00:27:00] learner. I say yes to almost everything that shows up. I'm like, 

[00:27:03] Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm. 

[00:27:04] Dr. Terri Levine: Showed up. How is this for me? Okay. I don't know. Um, and I literally.

Love to meet and talk with people who are completely different than me, completely different beliefs, religion, sexuality, whatever, so that I can learn to embrace more of the world, more cultures. And you know, every day I try to learn least for an hour, something new, something I don't know, or something. I think I know that, let me hear someone else's perspective.

[00:27:35] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's, it's, uh, interesting when we think we understand something we're, we may have a, a tip of that iceberg. But 

[00:27:44] Dr. Terri Levine: yeah, I have a client who's, she's so techie, she's amazing. And, uh, I was sharing something the other day and she said, oh, I, I have something to add. Can I add? I said, yes, of course.

Literally, it's a shortcut that probably saved me and my clients an hour a [00:28:00] week. Nice. I tell my clients like, I don't know everything. I know what I know. You all know what you know. We're a collective of energy, which is why I like to work with them in groups. There's so much synergy and synchronicity, and I learn from them as well.

[00:28:14] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. That's awesome. I love group coaching too. 'cause you know, when one person, one person may have a question but they don't know quite how to ask it, or they're afraid to ask it, or maybe they haven't even come to the question yet. It hasn't been made, you know, present, known to them, and somebody else will ask a question.

They'll be like, oh yeah, that applies to me too. Or I can see how I can use that information, or. It helps 'em grow. It's just, it's great to be collab, collaborating with other women, 

[00:28:43] Dr. Terri Levine: collaborative i I, the synchronicity, the synergy makes so much sense to me. I was, I have eight coaches, not so much I believe in coaching all different things, and one of my coaches said, oh, do you wanna work with me privately?

I said, no. [00:29:00] And she said, oh, it's the same price I said. I don't care if it was a 10th of the price. I wanna be in the group. I wanna collaborate, I want to connect. I wanna meet other women who think like, I think I wanna contribute and I wanna learn from them. And I said, that's why I do groups. And she's changing her model now where she's gonna do very little individual.

So it's kind of interesting. 

[00:29:21] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh yeah, fan. Fantastic. Because yeah, you, well, individualized coaching is good too. Especially if you're going through a specific season in your business or a specific problem that you're trying to address. But yeah, the group coaching is just so, I love that inspiring. It's kind of an accountability thing too, I feel.

Do agree with that? 

[00:29:45] Dr. Terri Levine: Yeah, when I first started, I mean the model 30 years ago, there weren't groups, right? So, mm-hmm. Big clients in 30 days. The end of a month I looked and said, this is not a sustainable model. Like 

[00:29:57] Penny Fitzgerald: that's a lot. 

[00:29:58] Dr. Terri Levine: It was, and I [00:30:00] didn't have any boundaries. And the clients all over the world, one person was like three in the morning, another person was 11 at night.

It was bizarre. And I sat down one day and said, I'm not doing this. And then I asked my clients. Could I try and put 15 of them in a group? I didn't know anyone doing groups. It just seemed like a weird concept and I said, I'll tell you what, let's try it for a month. If it doesn't work, I'll refund all your money.

We did it for a month and the feedback was, can we do more of this? And that's it. I stopped individual, so that's about 29 years ago. Wow. I do very rare individual if someone is one of my group clients. Once, like a one-off session on something. That's about it. It just works really well for me and my clients seem to get better results and they get faster results.

[00:30:51] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I totally believe that. It's just so, oh gosh. You know, doing an [00:31:00] individual, looking at the, the clients that I coach too, the individuals don't know what they don't know 

[00:31:06] Dr. Terri Levine: exactly. 

[00:31:07] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. And they get caught up in their fear. And seeing other women do what they're trying to do and step out and do one little thing.

It gives them courage too. 

[00:31:20] Dr. Terri Levine: It does. And I'll give you a case study of this real brief. I have a client who's only been with me two weeks and she was watching a couple of my clients. Some of my clients have been with me 30 years, some 20 some 10, but she was watching two other women who are just like fast track 'cause they've been around a while.

Um, she said, oh, I, I feel like I'm not keeping the pace. And I'm like, I want you to have a conversation with each of them and ask them where and how they were when they first started with me. So far. She had a conversation with one of 'em. That was it. She's not competing anymore. Instead she's gaining more [00:32:00] confidence and she said, I feel like I'm building my muscles.

I'm like, right, you don't go to the gym the first day and you know, lift the heaviest weights. I said years ago when I started working out, I swear to you, I couldn't lift a five pound weight. I lifted at a three. I'm not kidding. Um, and it's totally changed her mindset. 

[00:32:16] Penny Fitzgerald: Nice. Oh, and that's exactly true.

'cause you, you're rebuilding that muscle, you're retraining yourself. Not to think like competitiveness. That my mindset where you're, you know, in competition with each other, it's not a pie you gotta remem it's, you gotta rebuild that muscle. 

[00:32:36] Dr. Terri Levine: I like the pie analogy, by the way. Thanks for sharing that.

That's just really stayed in my head. I like that a lot. 

[00:32:42] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, it, it pops up for me a lot. I hear, you know, people talking about when you hear them speak, you can hear. The lack or the scarcity or the fear of, I don't have enough, or I'm never gonna be able to get enough, or [00:33:00] I am not ready, or any of those fears, and you just have to keep remembering.

It's not a zero sum. 

[00:33:08] Dr. Terri Levine: Yeah. Well said. I had, uh, invited someone to join my Facebook community 'cause I really liked their posts. I had seen a lot of their posts. I'm like, oh my God, they'd be great. And she private messaged me and said, well, I'm not gonna accept your invitation because I do exactly what you do.

I said, number one, no one does. Exactly. Exactly. We're all different. We, and number two, who cares? I said, I got, I have a community of about 10,000. There's tons of people in there who do something similar. I invited you because I think you can make a contribution and I think some of the people would like to work with you.

Not everyone in that group's gonna work with me. And she was really closed off. It was so interesting. Hmm. Why don't go where the competition is? And I went, I don't see competition. 

[00:33:55] Penny Fitzgerald: No 

[00:33:56] Dr. Terri Levine: cooperation. Uh, it's okay. 

[00:33:58] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:33:59] Dr. Terri Levine: [00:34:00] Interesting 

[00:34:00] Penny Fitzgerald: to me. That's very interesting. Yeah. That is, um. I'm sad. 

[00:34:07] Dr. Terri Levine: I felt sad. I'm glad you said that because that was how I felt.

I felt, oh, she is really missing out on not just opportunity with me, opportunity period. To be part of a bigger collective of energy and mm-hmm. With women and a network. 

[00:34:23] Penny Fitzgerald: Right, right. And you know, coming from the energy and the attitude of we're all here to serve and make a difference. You can't possibly serve 10,000 people, you can't possibly doing, be doing things the exact same way that she is and vice versa.

Mm-hmm. There's, you know, everyone's got a different vibe, a different energy, and you attract your people. Exactly. 

[00:34:52] Dr. Terri Levine: Exactly. Yeah. This is the first time that that has shown up for me. 

[00:34:55] Penny Fitzgerald: Hmm, interesting. I 

[00:34:56] Dr. Terri Levine: actually screenshot her responses and shared it with my [00:35:00] team and they're like. That's so odd. I said, it is really odd if you go to her Facebook page, because the reason I liked her posts where they were uhhuh uplifting and they were about collaboration and connection.

Oh, you always have to look. I always tell my clients you have to look for authenticity. Anybody could say or do anything on social media. Is that really how they show up all the time? Is that really right? Kar Entrepreneur stands for integrity. It stands for authenticity and transparency. That's what we stand for.

So anyone on my team that's not behaving in that way, and we have that recently, they're just done. I can't not have people who are aligned. So you, you, whoever's listening, you have to really check how are you showing up? You have to be the same person all the time. Many years ago, my husband normally doesn't come to events, but he was helping me at an event.

And he was in the back of the room and he said, someone came up and said, is she [00:36:00] always this bubbly and chatty? My husband's like, I've known her since I'm 16. Yeah, you get the same person and that's how we have to show up. I know plenty of people I've been in a green room with and they're one way and sometimes not nice, and they go on stage and they're a completely different person.

So we just have to take a look at those things for ourselves 

[00:36:21] Penny Fitzgerald: and that doesn't work long term. 

[00:36:23] Dr. Terri Levine: No, it does not. 

[00:36:24] Penny Fitzgerald: No. You might be able to fake it for exactly a 10 minutes speech or presentation. You'll get found out. Well, not only that, but you're, when you're doing your thing, yeah, it just doesn't come across like your, your energy has to be in.

Sink. 

[00:36:45] Dr. Terri Levine: And that's what I mean by you'll get found out. People will see that people Oh yeah. Sometimes they don't even know what it is that something feels Exactly. Something feels off. Yep. Yeah. 

[00:36:53] Penny Fitzgerald: Trust your gut on that. Yeah. Well, and even the person that's doing, you know, thinks they're one way and [00:37:00] acts at times another.

It's probably that person probably doesn't even realize they're doing it. They probably want to be this good person, this person that is okay. I just labeled that and I shouldn't that. I know what you mean though. Yeah. I don't intend to, um, label people, but you know, for someone who is not in their authentic self, it doesn't feel right and they want to be a certain way, but they aren't quite there yet.

[00:37:29] Dr. Terri Levine: Exactly, exactly. And I, I'm gonna, I won't use the name, but I am going to tell that I was in a green room with a gentleman who was speaking before me. I was going on stage after him, a very large event, and he seemed. You know, fairly nice in the green room. He's a huge name. He is a big star. And right before I went on stage, we had a break.

And so I was sitting in the green room when he came off stage, and he came in the room full of the other [00:38:00] speakers and he said, I'm not gonna use the curse awards that he used, but this audience, what a bunch of jerks, idiots, blah da da, and went on and on because he didn't have good sales. 

[00:38:10] Penny Fitzgerald: The people he serves were at fault.

[00:38:15] Dr. Terri Levine: I was. I think my jaw was just, oh, I could uhhuh close my jaw. And I thought to myself, you know what? I never look, and I, this is true story. Don't look at the sales from an event. I look at, do I think I impacted one person? There could be 200, 500, 10,000. Did I help one person? So I went on stage, I had a ball.

And if you ask me how was the audience, they were amazing. They were mm-hmm. It up. And I could see light bulbs going off. It was so interesting to me, and I think that was the last time. Yeah, it was the last time I accepted being part of any event where it was people pitching from the stage. I'm like, you know what?

It's not the thing that feels good to [00:39:00] me. You have to know. Mm-hmm. What feels good to you. That was not mm-hmm. For me. Well, 

[00:39:03] Penny Fitzgerald: and it's one thing to pitch something, but it's another thing to expect sales. 

[00:39:07] Dr. Terri Levine: Yeah. You know, I 

[00:39:08] Penny Fitzgerald: mean. Right. I mean, you're, you're there to serve them. You're there to make an impact, and the pitch that you give hopefully is taking them to the next level.

It's their commitment to, I want to make an investment in myself to do this other, you know, to take it to the next level, to learn more, to grow. And if you are doing it from the right place. It doesn't matter to you as long as you have impacted the them in a positive way. 

[00:39:40] Dr. Terri Levine: Exactly. Exactly. I mean, there's events where I quote, sold, or the audience has bought a ton of stuff.

Mm-hmm. 

[00:39:47] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:39:48] Dr. Terri Levine: Other events where maybe they didn't, doesn't matter. Table one is this was a better event. I really go internally to myself, did I do what I was supposed to do? 

[00:39:58] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:39:59] Dr. Terri Levine: The best version of [00:40:00] myself deliver, make an impact on at least one person in the audience. My work was done. 

[00:40:05] Penny Fitzgerald: Yep. How I feel.

Well, and if you did, which you will, if you did, then those results will come later. At some point, you're gonna get results from everything that you do in in service of others. 

[00:40:17] Dr. Terri Levine: I have to tell you a funny story about that. I spoke on cruise ships for a while, and this was like 20 years ago maybe. 

[00:40:25] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:40:25] Dr. Terri Levine: It was really fun.

I really enjoyed it and people would. I go to all my talks. I had these like little groupies and then they followed me on social media and email. Um, yeah, so it was, it had to be 10 years ago. Social media was around and email or whatever. I had somebody contact my company in April, I believe, a couple months ago, and ask how they get to work with me.

Um, and so we sent them some stuff and I saw their name and I went. Can't be. I remember somebody like following me around and asking me a million questions. [00:41:00] So I got the person's info and I sent a voice memo and said, where did we meet? Or how did we meet? And I might be saying something crazy. Was it I speaking on the cruise ship person?

Said, yep, and I followed you ever since, and now is my time. I went. Who knew that I could impact someone who would hang around for 10 years until they could work with me 10 years. Never know. Yep. There are people watching all the time, like sometimes on my Facebook lives, I don't see a lot of people live, and three or four days later, what I call 

[00:41:33] Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm.

[00:41:34] Dr. Terri Levine: Will contact me and be like, oh my gosh, thank you for the live. That really helped. I'm like, so you just never know. 

[00:41:40] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Well, and you never know what someone else is going through. They might be, you know, in a certain situation in their life where they can't work with you, or they don't have the time, or they don't have the money, or they don't have the, they need to work on themselves first, maybe a little bit before they can take that next step.

[00:41:57] Dr. Terri Levine: And I totally appreciate that. So I [00:42:00] always say to people, you have to just show up consistently and authentically, however you really are. 

[00:42:05] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:42:06] Dr. Terri Levine: I'm not telling you to be anything or anyone, just be who you are. And you know, I have one client, she's hilariously funny and she said, do you think that that works or doesn't work?

I said, is that authentic? She goes, yeah, my whole life. I go, then it works. 'cause that's who you are. Exactly. I'm not exactly actually funny, so I, you know, I'm not gonna go tell jokes. We're all different. 

[00:42:27] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. And the way that you relate to others is, um, that's the way that you can tell your story. You know, the way that you can serve others is through hu through humor.

Who wouldn't want that? 

[00:42:40] Dr. Terri Levine: Exactly. I mean, I think it's one of the things that endears her to me every time I see her, like I love hanging around her. She makes me smile, you know? I love that. Yeah. Just, just be you and by the way, there's enough business for all of us. That's right. You show up as yourself and, and that frequency that you're putting out there, the right [00:43:00] people resonate.

You don't have to spend a lot of money on ads. Market them. Sell them. No. Pitch them. They literally will raise their hands and come to you. They really do. 

[00:43:10] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. The people that need you, the people that, um, that you can serve best, they will find you. 

[00:43:15] Dr. Terri Levine: Yep. 

[00:43:16] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. You have to be visible. 

[00:43:19] Dr. Terri Levine: Why you mention visibility?

Because that's the one thing that I do talk about a lot. I see a lot of you are hiding. You've gotta be out there. Once you get out there, it's as if you had the best thing in the world and you're like, I'm not gonna show it to anyone. You've gotta be out there. And I had a client she didn't wanna do, uh, Facebook videos.

She's like, oh, I don't like the way I look. I said, forget about you. Exactly, exactly. You're helping someone else. I said, look, I show up typically just the way I am. My hair's the way it is. I don't wear a lot of makeup or any makeup. I'm just me. So she started doing, and she's uh, a, a naturopath who does this really [00:44:00] interesting videos for women on different issues that we have.

I love watching them, and all of a sudden she's like, I got 17 new patients in the last three months. I said, well, what was your average prior to that? She said like maybe seven in four months, and she goes, what am I doing different? I go, you're following the advice of being visible. And for her, it's the visibility of showing up not perfect.

She's got lots of imperfections like we all have, and she's perfect with those imperfections. 

[00:44:31] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Exactly. Yeah. Get out of that fear. We're so afraid. It's, it's an ego thing again. Yes, it is. Yeah. But it, that ego is trying to keep us safe. 

[00:44:43] Dr. Terri Levine: Yeah. I mean, we need that piece of us and we also need to know when it potentially is getting in our way to push it out there.

[00:44:52] Penny Fitzgerald: That's right. You are not the boss of me. 

[00:44:55] Dr. Terri Levine: Good, good things.

[00:44:59] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, gosh. [00:45:00] Oh, well, I, we have been chatting a bit, a minute. I, at the end. Oh, I love this. But at the end of my, um, episodes, I love to ask my guests, um, a little light, little fun question. What is your favorite beverage? Do you like a glass of wine? Do you have a favorite cocktail? 

[00:45:20] Dr. Terri Levine: So my clients will tell you, you never see Terry without a cup of coffee.

I love it. Me too. I know. Well, in the morning it's my vice. Okay. Mine is all day. It is my, I happen to love the taste of coffee. I just say, and it's not for the caffeine. 'cause I can go right to sleep. And I've given up. I don't get migraines. The times I've done it. I just happen to love it. So it's coffee 

[00:45:42] Penny Fitzgerald: hot or coffee.

Okay. And black. Do you like a black cup coffee or, I 

[00:45:46] Dr. Terri Levine: black. I like it hot. I like it cold. I just love it. 

[00:45:50] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. O okay. That's cool. I have a, um, a girlfriend who owns coffee shops and she's really into it. I wish I, I, I wish I had her in my ear right [00:46:00] now to ask you the right questions of.

Wow. Fun. Okay, so, um, no adult beverages. You like an espresso martini? 'cause those are pretty fun too 

[00:46:14] Dr. Terri Levine: for adult beverages. Red wine is my go-to. Okay. My husband, um, invests in wine futures, so we have ah. Hold on your chair. We have over 5,000 bottles in our basement, which is like a whole wine storage. Um, but they're wine futures, so some of them we're not allowed to drink for X amount of years, and then some of them he sells.

But I do love on weekends to have my red wine. 

[00:46:39] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay, now we're talking. Okay, so my husband, um, bought. Some Joseph Phelps Insignia on Futures when we were first, when we were engaged, and we have opened one of those every major anniversary. [00:47:00] So yeah, we have one to open this year. This is our 20th year. 

[00:47:04] Dr. Terri Levine: Oh, congratulations.

That's beautiful. 

[00:47:06] Penny Fitzgerald: Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, so we're excited for that. But you, so some of the ones that your husband collects or that you. That you both collect. You don't drink your there for selling. Yeah. So I'm gonna give 

[00:47:19] Dr. Terri Levine: you an name. Investments. He's the guy that does this. So he bought, okay, this is about eight years ago.

He bought a champagne for a hundred bucks, okay? And he bought 10 of them. Okay? And this summer he sold each of those bottles. Are you ready for this? 

[00:47:37] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:47:38] Dr. Terri Levine: $3,000 a bottle, right? And so this is me. We just keep one. Yes. I mean, look at, yes. And he said, I have others that are just as good. No. Oh. Because these aren't made anymore.

They're super rare. Um, and he said, Terry, we've already enjoyed, and he's [00:48:00] right. We've already enjoyed some of these, so let other people experience this. 'cause you're not, they're not available anymore. 

[00:48:06] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. To 

[00:48:07] Dr. Terri Levine: that. However, he does have a very special bottle that we're opening. In two weeks. 

[00:48:12] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, okay. Well, okay.

Can you share what it is? Do you remember 

[00:48:16] Dr. Terri Levine: what is I don't. Once I have it, I'll let you know what it is. Okay. 

[00:48:18] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay, cool. I just know 

[00:48:19] Dr. Terri Levine: it's a gorgeous bottle. I've never seen a bottle quite this beautiful. I'll probably keep the bottle I'll 

[00:48:23] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, fun 

[00:48:24] Dr. Terri Levine: for you. 

[00:48:25] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, we, that's cool. Yeah. We sometimes keep our bottles too, just for, you know, a trophy.

That's what they're, yeah, exactly. Wow. And I love Good. Bubbles. Good Champagne. So that, do you remember which one the champagne was that he was selling? 

[00:48:42] Dr. Terri Levine: That I don't remember either. 

[00:48:44] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. 

[00:48:44] Dr. Terri Levine: Yeah, it was, I was like devastated to see those bottles go. Oh, and I al also do feel like I did have some of that let other people enjoy it 'cause they can't get it any, 

[00:48:55] Penny Fitzgerald: that's a really nice gesture, nice thing that, to allow others to enjoy it [00:49:00] too.

[00:49:01] Dr. Terri Levine: And, uh, the, the price of it just was astonishing to me that people would pay that much for bottle champagne. And literally, I think he mentioned it on one wine thing, that he's in Uhhuh and there went all the bottles like within an hour. They were all, 

[00:49:17] Penny Fitzgerald: wow. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. And so yeah, when they're stored properly.

Exactly. All of that makes such a big difference too. 

[00:49:27] Dr. Terri Levine: Yeah, exactly. And you know, that's, that's his little hobby and passion. Aw. I get the benefit of drinking it. 

[00:49:34] Penny Fitzgerald: I would love to be a mouse in the corner and have your husband and my husband have a little chat. 

[00:49:38] Dr. Terri Levine: That would be really interesting. I'd love that.

[00:49:40] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, we could have a, a glass of bubbles in the corner and watch that. 

[00:49:43] Dr. Terri Levine: I'm with you. 

[00:49:46] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. 

[00:49:48] Dr. Terri Levine: Love it. 

[00:49:49] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. So, um, do you have a fun memory sharing an a lovely bottle with your hubby or with friends? 

[00:49:56] Dr. Terri Levine: Yeah, I really do. And, and unfortunately, um, [00:50:00] one of the friends passed almost two years ago, a young man, sorry, yeah.

Of cancer. However, it's a beautiful memory. Um, we went to a wine, a winery, his wife, him, my husband, and me, and she was all dressed up and I was all dressed up. The owner of the winery just really loved how much we love the wine. So his wife came out and said, I'm gonna cook you all dinner and we're gonna open some wines.

We never open. So we're sitting there, we're having all this wine, and I said, oh my gosh, my feet are, they were killing me. I was wearing heels and dressed up. And she said, I'll be right back. She came back with bunny slippers. Here I'm at this elegant winery with this fancy dinner in my bunny slippers. I love it.

He laughed all night and uh, his wife, the gentleman who passed, we still share the memory of that. She's like, do you remember when beautiful memory that we're, we're holding onto? 

[00:50:59] Penny Fitzgerald: That is [00:51:00] a wonderful memory. Yeah, and you know, it doesn't matter. You don't have to dress up. You don't have to serve a fancy meal.

Just get together with girlfriends and have a good time. 

[00:51:09] Dr. Terri Levine: It's, it's, so my, the things I love and value most in life are experiences. Same. I, I don't need more things. I don't want anyone to purchase anything for me. If I want something, I'll get it. Give me an experience. This, um, December, my birthday's in December, one of my really good friends who's also a client, we have a, just a beautiful, beautiful area here in Pennsylvania called Longwood Gardens that the DuPonts had created.

Mm-hmm. And it's magnificent. And during the holidays, it's, mm-hmm. So she picked me up. She first took me to a place that she found that has gluten-free food 'cause I'm Celiac. And then we went to this magical winter wonderland and I'll never forget this 'cause it's an experience as we're walking around [00:52:00] outside, we had no snow.

We don't usually have a lot of snow early in December. All of a sudden it started snowing like crazy, kind of making it even more magical, like a snow globe kind of snow and you know, the kind that just sticks everywhere. Yeah. And she hit me and I looked at her and she said, how's that for an experience?

So that's what I like. That's that's what life is for me. Yeah. 

[00:52:24] Penny Fitzgerald: Those goosebump moments. Exactly. Yeah. Oh, I love it. Terry, 

[00:52:30] Dr. Terri Levine: thank you so much. This has been fun. So much. I've enjoyed it. I'd love to stay in touch. I feel like I made a new friend, a like-minded sister, and I'm Yes. First who've been here. Thank you.

[00:52:40] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes, me too. Thank you so much. 

[00:52:42] Dr. Terri Levine: Most welcome. 

[00:52:43] Penny Fitzgerald: All right.