Ep: 20 How to Build an Invite-Only Legacy Offer That Actually Works with Tracy Medeiros
“I don’t want to be a coach. I’m gonna tell you what to do, and you’re gonna do it.”
Tracy Medeiros
If you’ve ever felt torn between loving the consistent revenue of retainers and hating the anxiety spiral that comes with “what if they all cancel at once,” this episode is going to be your new comfort listen. I sat down with Tracy Medeiros, a business design architect and longtime systems girlie who has been in the online space since the wild west days of 2016. And let me tell you, this woman has takes. The kind I live for.
We got into advisory, retainer psychology, client boundaries, metrics that matter, metrics that lie, systems that support you even when you’re running at 10 percent, and what it actually means to design a sustainable business without recreating corporate chaos. We even talk about why so many of us accidentally create containers that make clients dependent on us, and how to stop that pattern immediately.
If you’re a service provider who wants to scale simply, create an offer ecosystem that actually works for how you operate, and stop burning yourself out while you try to be available, please listen to this one. Tracy brings the exact grounded, data-backed perspective our industry needs more of.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode
Why Tracy negotiated her first client by telling her employer “you’re being an idiot.”
The difference between strategy, coaching, and straight-up telling people what to do.
How to identify and fix the moments when you accidentally build client dependency.
The metrics that actually matter inside a service-based business.
How to build systems that work even when you don’t.
The real reason clients don’t follow your processes and what you can do about it.
How Tracy structures her private retainer model and VIP days.
The truth about online business culture and why nuance is dying.
Why “results may vary” should apply to services just as much as products.
Systems girlies needing systems girlies. Enough said.
Designing the Experience You Actually Want
I will die on this hill, your systems make or break your business. Not because systems are cute or aesthetic, but because they keep you from burning your business down every time something feels out of alignment.
Tracy and I talked about the ways we, as service providers, accidentally create the very environments we hate. When clients push boundaries, when communication feels messy, when they treat you like a coach even though you’re a strategist, most of the time it’s not a client problem. It’s a systems and structure problem.
And that’s good news, because you can fix systems. You can rework containers. You can communicate expectations. You can design the experience you want instead of settling for whatever chaos shows up at the door.
How Tracy Approaches Retainers (The Smart Way)
Retainers get a bad rap in our space, and honestly, I get why. A lot of us learned retainers the hard way. But Tracy approaches them like a business architect, not a babysitter. Here’s what she does differently.
Retainers Are Not Catch-All Containers
If someone hasn’t gone through her method or VIP day, they don’t qualify. Retainers are for alumni who already think like systems people and understand how to use her support.
Scope Control Is Sacred
She Marie Kondo’d her legacy container because it attracted people who weren’t aligned anymore. Instead of blaming clients, she redesigned the experience to match her capacity and energy.
High-Touch Doesn’t Mean High-Chaos
Her clients love Voxer, but it’s structured. It’s for validation and decision-making, not emergencies.
Ascension Matters
Every container leads somewhere. Her VIP days are modular and stackable, and only after that path does someone get invited into her legacy retainer.
This is the intentional offer ecosystem I want every service provider building.
Tracking Metrics Beyond the Numbers
Tracy made a point I loved: your data isn’t just numbers. If you track revenue but ignore whether you're drowning or resentful, your metrics aren’t doing their job.
She encourages business owners to track delight metrics too, like:
Did you get time for rest?
Did your week feel spacious or stressful?
Did your clients follow the process?
Did you keep your boundaries?
Burnout doesn’t show up in a spreadsheet. It shows up in your energy, your resentment, and your resistance. When you track delight alongside data, you make way better decisions.
Chapters
00:00 — Why Tracy told her employer “you’re an idiot”
02:00 — Coming into the online space in 2016
05:00 — Strategy vs coaching
07:30 — Systems that support you even at 10 percent
12:00 — Metrics that matter
15:45 — Results may vary
19:00 — Retainers that work
24:00 — VIP days + ascension
29:40 — Corporate to entrepreneur
36:00 — When systems girlies need systems
44:00 — Tech tools we love
54:00 — Find Tracy online
Resources & Mentions
About the Guest
Tracy Medeiros is a Business Architect and Strategic Operations Consultant who helps founders and CEOs lead with clarity, confidence, and intention. She builds operational backbones that turn vision into action, move mountains without burning out, and create cultures where teams thrive while scaling sustainably without the chaos.
Connect with Tracy:
Email: aloha@medeirosconsulting.com
Instagram: @medeirosconsulting
Website: medeirosconsulting.com
Interested in Being on the Show or Working with Emylee?
Are you a service provider with a bold perspective to share? Apply to be a guest.
Ready to transform your service into a productized, scalable offer? Apply for Sold Out Services.
If you’d like to see a library of all published episodes in a gallery with easy-to-find links to all listening platforms be sure to check out the Sell The Damn Service Episode Library.
