Ep 300: Plan, Launch, and Grow Your Small Biz or Startup

Woo hoo, episode #300! Meet the Phoenix Flight Collective (PFC), my new three-level program that's part mastermind group, part cohort, and part private coaching to help you at every stage of creating a small biz, startup, or consultancy/agency.

All levels are now open to the public! Join or apply!

https://dcx.to/pfc

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Welcome, low ego action heroes and phoenixes. I'm Debbie Levitt from Delta CX, and it is mid-June 2026. And welcome to episode 300. Can you believe it? We have done 300 episodes here on this and the original Delta CX channel uh in the last almost seven years. So uh here we are. Um, welcome, welcome. Today we're going to talk about the Phoenix Flight Collective, which is uh a new program that I've created for anybody who is looking to brainstorm, plan, launch, or grow a small business, a startup, maybe your own freelancing work or consultancy or agency. It's basically for every human on the planet who might want to have their own business of some sort or is considering something entrepreneurial, uh, either as their main source of income or a side source of income. Uh, so that is what we will be talking about today because it is now uh available to the public, and so people can look at joining. And you might be thinking, why did Debbie do this? Why does this exist? And I've seen a lot of programs out there that say they're gonna help you build a business or grow a business or start a business, and uh maybe they're good programs. I didn't try them, I'm not saying they're good or bad, but I found that a lot of them uh seem to cost a lot of money, seem to require a long-term commitment, and also uh seem to have a lot of add-ons that that I think are shouldn't be optional, but they're uh in a lot of the programs I've seen, they were optional. And so a lot of people probably won't do them because they think they either don't need them or they don't want to pay for them. So I wanted to design something that would um bring to it what I believe people need to uh succeed better, faster, easier, less expensively. Um and why me? Uh, because I've been working with uh uh certainly businesses of all sizes, but especially small businesses uh since I started uh my consultancy and agency work in the mid-90s. Um my slogan used to be start, market, and improve your business. And I helped a lot of people uh with online selling of both goods and products and services. So uh so I've got experience there across uh lots of different businesses, not just services or tech. Uh I've also worked with people who sold car parts and jewelry and uh people who were accountants. So um my experience is all over the place, and I'm happy to help people wherever they need it. So um before uh so by the way, if you just want to jump right in and you want to check out the Phoenix Flight Collective for yourself, if you want to join the next level one cohort or uh apply for levels two or three, the URL is on the screen for the whole show. So it is DCX for like Delta CX, DCX.to slash lowercase pfc, like Phoenix Flight Collective. Um, so let me talk a little bit about what it is by showing you the webpage where you're going to land when you uh put that URL in. So I'm uh I'm ruining the end of the story, but that's okay. You'll here's what you're going to see when you get there. It's part of my coaching website, since uh I would say that a lot of what's going to help people with their businesses is going to fall under coaching or advising or giving people feedback or helping them with ideas. And while that certainly matches the Delta CX brand in general, I think it's a closer tie to my coaching work. So you can find it on the DeltaCX.coach website. Uh, it is also under services. Join the Phoenix Flight Collective program. So easy to find. And the idea is you don't have to uh quit your job to be a part of this, you don't have to be ready to start a business to be a part of this, you don't have to wait until you're laid off to be a part of this. Um, really, this is designed for anybody at any stage, even a curious stage or a not ready stage. It's so important to plant seeds and plan, even if you don't plan to take action right away. Your future self will be happy you were planning and planting seeds as early as you could. Um, you don't have to be in crisis to join this, you don't have to be desperate. Uh, ultimately, this is for everybody, no matter uh where they are. Uh so there are three levels of the Phoenix uh Flight Collective uh program. Level one is the planning stage. This is where you may or may not even know what kind of business you want to get into. Uh, right now I'm watching everybody become a coach or a yoga instructor, and that may or may not be for you. People say they want to run a cafe, but that costs a lot more than you think. So at level one, we're going to be brainstorming what types of uh businesses might best match you and your core personal qualities, your time, your budget. We're going to be uh looking into the viability of your business idea and how well it's likely to connect with your target audiences. So, of course, a lot of understanding your audience in there and certainly budgeting. Some people think, well, I don't have to budget, I didn't start my business yet. These are definitely things you want to plan as early as you can. Be familiar. We did a show previously on budgets. Let me find which show that was so I can uh reference it. And where is it? Well, if you know where it is, uh let me know. It's episode 290 something since we did it fairly recently. Um, but I am accidentally logged out of my YouTube account. Let's try finding it. Uh, but in the budget show, I talked about how uh it's really important to do that budgeting early. It may change over time, and there's a lot of things to take into consideration, so much so that you might also want to do a personal budget so that you can understand if this is a full-time business or a side business, how much money do you need to make to stay afloat and also to be able to save. So that was episode 297. So you can find it on YouTube by writing Delta CX297. It should come right up. So uh that's uh budgeting is part of level one. Um, and of course, in uh well we'll talk in it, it's not of course, you don't know yet, uh you will find out shortly that all of these levels come with one-on-one coaching from me at no extra cost. So uh that you get some coaching at no extra cost. If you would like more, you can certainly pay for more, but there's going to be some at no extra cost because I believe that having that um kind of advisor and coach and um you know uh the the surface you can bounce things off of, etc., having that person in your corner, as well as the cohort and mastermind group nature of these levels, that is a great way to get the support you need in lots of different ways. So we'll be looking at budgets, um, how should you price whatever you're going to offer, and uh what will be your strategy to make sure that your products and services fit your market? This is a 10-week cohort. Everybody's welcome. You don't have to apply, you can just sign up for the cohort. I've got two more cohorts coming up in 2026. I haven't scheduled the 2027 ones yet. Um, they're 110 euros flat for the 10 weeks, uh, and you do get some private coaching with me included. Um, and if you catch it at the early bird, it's 99 euros. So this runs about 100 or so American dollars. And as always, with all three of these levels, if you're in a country where your money does not convert well against the euro or against the dollar, just send me an email and just let me know what you think you can pay for this and which level you want to join, and I will do my best to make it happen. Um, so that's level one. Level one is brainstorming and planning. You haven't launched the business yet, you don't have your first customers yet, you're still figuring out what is this and is it likely to be a good idea? Uh, that is the plan level. Level two is Rise. It's for going from deeper planning. So now that we know what this business is going to be, now we can do some even deeper planning and go into that business launch. So that's going to be what's your business name? Uh, what domain name should you buy? Uh, building a the right website to present whatever this is, um, maybe looking at your social media and your marketing, um, making sure you're ready to launch the business. How are you going to find your customers? How are you going to keep them, especially if retention is important for whatever you're going to do? And start to look for honest signs of product market fit. So both levels two and three are monthly memberships. And that means you people can join anytime, they can leave anytime. I'm not going to make you commit to a certain amount of time. I hope you're going to stay because it's awesome and it works well for you. And it's better than not being there, and that it's worth what you're paying, not because you felt forced into it from a contract or something like that. So that is just a monthly membership. Um, and um, as of now for 2026, you'll get the first three months free, whether you join at level two or level three. And then from there, I plan to charge 90 euros a month, which again is around 100 American dollars. Um, like the level one, anyone in levels two and three will get one hour or two half hours of private coaching with me included. Um, and I'm charging 70 euros an hour for that now. So that means this group is almost free to you. Uh, and you, or it's or the coaching is free, however you want to look at it. But the idea is to, again, to make sure that you're getting the support of the group and the cohort as a mastermind group and as people who you can turn to for all of the business and emotional things that you might be going through, the highs and the lows, uh, and then also the private coaching as well. Uh, so level two, it will take you through launching your business and hopefully getting your first few customers. And then level three, the SOAR, um, is for right after you launch into sustained business growth. So that once you've got uh the once your business is out there and you've got your first few customers, you would be in level three. You could be in level three for years because those of us who have businesses are always trying to improve it. We're always trying to find ways that we can grow. How do we scale? How do we find more customers, new customers, customers who will buy more from us? So conversion, retention. We might look at hiring or firing people. We might look at how to automate things or uh, and of course, automation and AI might be things we're looking at at every level, but certainly when you're trying to grow and improve your business, you might be ready to invest in uh more of that and maybe running some experiments with ways that you can grow or move into adjacent areas or adjacent target markets. So uh those are the three levels. And again, anyone can sign up for level one, that's just a cohort that you're welcome to join. We use my Life After Tech book as part of the program, but you'll get the book, the digital version, for free uh with the cohort. And then levels two and three do not have a program. Uh all of the levels do have recurring calls. Um, and that way we are all talking to each other and checking in on each other and listening for wins and progress and where people need help and accountability so that we can support each other. In level one, your the calls are weekly, and in levels two and three, the calls are currently once a month. Um, so that should give you a little bit of an idea here. And again, this is I was just saying this um, that you get the individual coaching, you get group support, um, you get kind of a mastermind group, and all of this takes place in our Discord community, which is free to join, but these levels uh might not be. But the idea is I found by running a Discord community for the last, I guess, two or so years, um, that I feel like it's more successful than our Slack community because you get to be as anonymous as you want. And so if you want to show up with a business and and talk about things that are personal to you and talk about aspects of the business and talk about personal finances or feelings, you'll probably feel a little more comfortable doing that, knowing that none of us know who you are, or few I'll know who you are, but I never tell. Few of us know who you are. We don't necessarily know who you are, where you are, gender, ethnicity, it all melts away. You reveal whatever you want to reveal, and I find that this just helps people be a lot more open about things they're dealing with, things they're struggling with when people can't go check them out on LinkedIn or can't go look at whatever it is. Obviously, by the time you get to levels two and three, if you're sharing with people your website and you're promoting yourself, because I really hope at levels two or three we're really networking with each other and finding ways to uh really work together. Okay, you'll be slightly less anonymous, but still, uh I think that the just the nature of the Discord can really help. Um, the Discord uh system has built-in voice and video channels, and so we've got those set up for our calls where your camera will not be recorded. Um, your voice will be recorded if you uh opt into that. Otherwise, you can always just type in the chat and not have your voice recorded uh because you can't record on Discord, so I just um do the calls out loud and have them uh record on my phone and uh give people transcripts later. Um so uh also that means you can do coworking in Discord. You can join your levels uh coworking uh or hangout room and get to know other members better, maybe find a partnership that you can create. I really hope to see a lot of that. Um, or just co-work with somebody and feel a little less alone and isolated. So lots of great things uh for uh happening in Discord, and of course, uh I say of course, but maybe you don't know. Discord is available as uh a web-based system, a downloadable uh uh client or app, and also a phone app so you can stay as connected to Discord as you prefer. Uh so again, level one is a cohort, everybody starts and completes it at the same time. Levels two and three are kind of rolling monthly. Uh people may change from time to time, but I want to respect that and not make people feel like they have to stay because they got locked into something, and we'll add people as they're approved, and people may leave as they leave, and uh that's that's the way it is. I I want people to feel uh the flexibility. So, in more detail, looking at the levels again. Level one, business design, brainstorming, planting seeds, planning your business or startup and the products and services it'll offer, understanding your target audiences to ensure you're creating something that solves their problems well without creating new problems, strategizing, creating, testing, and iterating on products and services, budgets and financials, planning funnels, marketing, pricing, value proposition, and more. How will AI technology or LLMs be used in your business, if at all, and determining what's required for business viability and success. Level two, of course, continues where level one leaves off and goes deeper, will also be shifting towards launching that business. And for some people, they can launch within weeks of having a business idea. Other people take months, some people take years. There is no right or wrong amount of time for this. You want to launch when you're ready and when you believe you are poised for success, that you have something that is likely to find product or service market fit at all of our atomic levels. And so don't feel rushed. You can stay in level one uh for 10 weeks, and then you can stay in level two forever. If it takes you a while to get to that launch uh state, totally fine. There's no pressure to move to any other level. Uh, level two will cover uh some of the things that you'll start to work on as you narrow in on what your business will be: the business name, pricing, marketing initiatives, and website, more advanced budgeting, financials, and forecasting, finding and retaining your first customers or clients, measuring and refining marketing, attraction, conversion, and retention, checking for honest indicators of product market fit, shifts and pivots, as might be needed, adding automations and or hiring vendors, contractors, freelancers, or employees. So that's level two. And again, level three continues with everything that you were working on in levels one and two. The difference is that this business is now more mature. This business has launched, it has found its first uh handful of customers, it seems to be headed in the right direction. There don't seem to be any major emergencies that make us rethink the launch or the business. We are focused on scaling, growth, improvements, uh anything that falls into those buckets. So uh any uh any uh company that's been around for at least uh a little while and has started getting customers, this could be a startup, this could be a service business, you would be in level three. And again, as I mentioned, the uh pricing is currently that level one is a 10-week cohort. Um, it's 110 euros, roughly 130 American dollars, as a flat fee for the whole 10 weeks. Or uh sometimes I've got some early bird specials running, you might catch it at 99 euros, which is about 116 uh American dollars. Levels two and level three uh are paid monthly or annually. Currently, it'll be three months for free. And then uh if you choose to stay, and I hope you will, because I hope you'll see the value uh in that first month, um, you would then be paying 90 euros a month, which is about just over a hundred American dollars, or you can pay annually if you'd like to take advantage of a discount. Otherwise, go month to month and cancel uh anytime. Come and go as you as you prefer. But I know that these groups tend to work better when a core group of people will stick with it. So I do hope that people will find this affordable enough uh to stick with it. Check with your accountant, it's probably an expense that you can write off. Um, so let's see. Yep, I've got the uh Level one cohorts coming up in July. So just a few weeks from now, we'll start the next cohort. This will be our seventh cohort at the level one level. Um, so I have done this before, and uh we've had a good number of people go through it, and I'm excited to have you go through it as well. It's not in Maven, it's not in Circle, it's not in Mighty Networks, it's not in a Facebook group, it is in Discord. Everything I do now is in Discord. I just find that to be easiest. Yes, Discord has a bit of a learning curve and it's imperfect, but it is my favorite of all of the kind of communication-based systems. By the way, while I'm talking your head off, if you happen to be watching live, please let me know if you have any questions. And if you're watching this later on YouTube on the Delta CX Hive YouTube channel, um, please give us a thumbs up and a comment. Uh let me know if this interests you. Let me know if you see room for improvement. I'm always happy to make these uh better. Um, let me know if you're going to sign up. Leave a comment. And so our cohorts will start in uh July and run for 10 weeks, which will take you into early September, and then start one in October, which will take you into early December. Um, and these are always asynchronous. All three levels are asynchronous. Even though we do have some scheduled meetings, it is optional to attend those. Nobody gets in any trouble for not attending. Um, whoever attends gets the primary benefit, and then these things will be recorded and shared later only with the cohort. They're not gonna go on YouTube. Uh, the level two call does not get broadcast out to level three. Everybody uh will just see their stuff. Um, and of course, after you complete level one, if you feel like you're getting closer to planning and launching a business, you are absolutely invited to level two. You don't even have to apply. You can go from level one to level two whenever you are comfortable once you've done the level one program. Um, so why join? Because it's super affordable. Uh, it's costs less than any other similar program I've seen, and there are similar programs, so take the time to check out other ones and see what might be right for you. I've tried to make it very flexible with a lot of things, sorry, being asynchronous. Uh, and again, if the price doesn't work for you, please get in touch and let me know what price would work for you, and I'll see if I can make that number happen. Um, again, everything is intended to be very uh personalized and a way for people to really give support and get support. Especially when you're in these types of mastermind groups, there's always somebody who has faced something similar to what you're facing and they've faced it before. And if you can come to the Discord community and write a post about it, there are other people who may want the same question answered, and there may be other people who have already experimented with that or fixed that or accomplished that. And so it's a real opportunity to learn from each other uh from the wins and the losses, and of course to get some uh private help from me as well. And again, uh I want to make sure that this group is grounded in reality, it's not just about cheerleading everybody. Yes, we want to support you, but sometimes there might be some tough love. There will be critical thinking, there will be honest feedback, and I want that very much to be a part of the community and not just uh cheerleading, especially if if it looks some like somebody could be going in the wrong direction. Let's stop and take a look at that. Let's break it down, let's analyze it, let's look at some what ifs and some possible outcomes and and make sure we feel uh well informed. Um, so that is the Phoenix Flight Collective, and that is where that is going. And I really hope that we can get uh even just a handful of people uh joining in the coming months uh so we can experiment with it, work with it, get more people starting their own things. Sure, starting and running a business isn't going to be for everybody, but who knows? Maybe you'll like it, maybe it'll work well for you, maybe you're just trying to sell some of your crafts online and you want to better understand businessy things and budgeting things. I remember so many zillions of years ago, I used to work a lot with eBay and online sellers, and they just didn't know a lot about business, and it was easy to make some of the mistakes that they were making or have some of the misconceptions that they had, and and the story that always comes to mind is I remember talking to a woman at eBay's annual conference, which I don't think they hold anymore, and the woman was telling me how she buys the item from whoever, I don't remember who, buys the item from somewhere. Excuse me, for 10 for no for $9. The item costs her nine dollars, and she's selling it on eBay for ten dollars. And I said, You're losing money. And she said, No, that's a dollar I didn't have yesterday. And I said, No, you're losing money because number one, you've got eBay fees on the ten dollar sale, and that could easily be that whole dollar, maybe a little bit less, maybe a little bit more. I don't remember, oops, I don't remember eBay fees right now, but those are definitely eating into that possible one dollar profit. I said, number two, your time has value. You had to photograph it and describe it and put it up on eBay. Maybe you had to answer questions about it, you had to pack it and ship it and and all of these things. Your time is worth money, and you're gonna end up losing money uh at at this pricing. And she said, No, that's a dollar I didn't have yesterday. Sorry, spring allergy sniffles, but that my thought was just, oh wow, things that I thought were obvious or everybody knows this about uh business or starting your own business or having a startup or trying to buy and sell things and uh doing that kind of stuff. Uh, I just thought, gee, everybody knows these things. And in reality, a lot of people don't, but that's okay. That's why you've got a group like the Phoenix Flight Collective and other groups uh as well, in case you want to choose a different one. I'm not the only one. And so I also find from some of my coaching clients that people don't even know what questions to ask. If you've never started a business before, you don't even know what to ask. And that makes sense. You're going to learn as you're flying the plane, but it will be so much better if you have that coach, that advisor, and a group of people uh kind of taking the flight along with you. The Phoenix Flight Collective. Um, so uh I've been talking for about a half hour about this. Um, thanks everybody for uh listening to this and giving it some consideration. If you have any questions, put them in the uh comments or the chat. I will happily answer them personally. Hopefully, my uh app notification will go off and I will become aware that there is a question. Um, but let me know. And uh for those of you listening to the audio only podcast, I hope to see you there as well. Um, but from now, I will wrap up today's show. So we'll start the wrap-up music. And I am going uh in an hour from now, in case you're watching live, I'm gonna switch over to my vocal coach Debbie uh channels, and I'm going to be doing a show analyzing some singing performance and the idea of storytelling in singing. So if that interests you, if you're a musician or a singer or performer, I hope to see you over there as well. Um, but hey, good luck with uh whatever you're doing with your own business, and if there's anything that I can do, I hope to see you in the Phoenix Flight Live. Thanks and uh catch you soon.