If your business feels “fine” but not fulfilling, you might be stuck in what Lori calls the Uplevel Gap – that quiet in-between space where your success has outgrown your systems, but you haven't yet built the structure for what's next.
In this episode of The Midlife Business Academy, Lori walks through the “Uplevel + Expand” phases of her TRUE Framework – showing you how to align your growth with your values, simplify your systems, and stretch into your next level of visibility and impact without adding more hustle.
You'll learn how to recognize when your business no longer fits, the difference between busy growth and aligned expansion, and how to build a business that supports the life you actually want to live.
In this episode, you'll learn:
• How to recognize when it's time to uplevel
• The difference between growth and expansion
• What to eliminate, refine, and elevate before you scale
• The mindset shift from “more” to “meaningful”
• How to create capacity for sustainable success
• Why expansion is less about doing more and more about allowing more
If your business feels ‘too full' but not fully aligned, let's talk.
Book a Profitable Path Alignment Call and I'll help you identify what to trim, what to refine, and what to elevate so you can expand sustainably—on your terms.
### 00:00:01 – When “fine” is costing your business
There comes a moment in every business where staying the same costs more than changing. You know that feeling. The work is fine. The clients are fine. The results are fine.
But that is the problem. Fine is the easiest way to stall your momentum. And if you want to build a business that grows with you instead of dragging behind you, you have to raise the bar on what you offer, how you show up, and what you allow. And once you have raised the bar, then you rise with it.
Welcome to the Midlife Business Academy. I am Lori Lyons, marketing strategist, business coach, and accidental techie. After years of running a successful website design agency, I am now building the business of my dreams and helping other midlife entrepreneurs do the same. From strategy to marketing to mindset, we cover what really matters when you are growing a business that fits your life.
Let’s get started.
### 00:01:13 – TRUE framework recap & today’s focus
Welcome back to the Midlife Business Academy, where we talk about building a business that fits your life and not the other way around. I am Lori Lyons, and today we are talking about the next two stages of the TRUE framework, uplevel and expand.
If you remember from last week, TRUE stands for T for trim, R for refine, U for uplevel, and E for expand. Trim and refine clear the pathway. Uplevel and expand build the runway.
If you have not listened to last week’s episode, take a moment and stop and go back and listen to it and then come back to this episode. Because here is the most important thing I want you to walk away with from today’s episode: uplevel and expand are not about doing more. They are about becoming more. They are about stepping into the version of yourself that is your next level of what clients already expect.
And just like the last episode connected directly to the client journey, uplevel and expand are deeply tied to how your clients move through the discover, connect, engage, invite, convert, experience, refer, and return client journey. Trim and refine created simplicity and alignment. Uplevel and expand create elevation and reach.
### 00:02:49 – Why upleveling comes before expansion
So, here is the question you are probably asking yourself: why are we talking about upleveling before expansion?
Because most business owners expand too early. They add offers before they improve their delivery. They add platforms before they strengthen their message. They add visibility before they have a client experience that keeps people coming back.
Does this sound familiar to you? Expansion without up-leveling is just a bigger version of what is already broken.
Uplevel comes first because it strengthens every single stage of the client journey. The discover stage improves because your presence feels elevated. The connect stage improves because it deepens your message and it feels grounded and confident. The engage stage increases because your expertise feels sharper. Invite becomes cleaner because your positioning is stronger. The convert stage becomes easier because people feel safer saying yes. The experience becomes smoother because your delivery is upgraded. The refer becomes natural because clients feel proud to talk about you. And return becomes consistent because your work stands out and people want more of it.
Uplevel aligns your business with the clients you want to attract, not the ones you are settling for.
### 00:04:32 – The four pillars of upleveling
So let’s talk about what upleveling actually means. Upleveling is not a makeover. It is a recalibration. It is setting the standards of how you want to operate and how your business represents you.
And here is where we as midlife entrepreneurs have a huge advantage. We have experience. We have instincts. We have discernment. You know cheap from quality and rushed from polished. Now is the time to use that wisdom on your own business.
So upleveling touches four areas: your identity as a leader, your message and positioning, your client delivery, and your environment and boundaries. So let’s walk through each one and how they intersect with the client journey.
The first stage I have mentioned was your identity as a leader, and this one is internal. It is the version of you that shows up in your content, your decisions, your pricing, and your boundaries.
If you want clients who respect your expertise, then you must respect your own. If you want clients who value your time, you must value your time. If you want clients who invest at a higher level, stop offering every possible discount and flexible favor that you can think of to get new clients.
The minute you uplevel your identity, everything in the client journey strengthens. I was listening to a podcast over the weekend. Jasmine Starr interviewed Miss Excel, Kat Norton, and a business coach told her, “You are not the Walmart of what you do. You are Louis Vuitton, and price it like Louis Vuitton.” And I thought, I want to go back and re-record and re-listen and redo that one because so many of my clients feel like they have to be Walmart in order to get clients. You do not. If you want Louis Vuitton clients, you charge Louis Vuitton pricing.
So the minute that you uplevel your identity, everything in your client journey strengthens. Your discover phase will feel more authoritative. Your connect phase will feel more confident. Your engage phase will feel more interesting. Your invite phase feels more aligned with who you are. Converting feels more natural because people follow your lead.
Stage two, or level two, is your message and positioning. This is where most business owners will feel the shift first, and this is also what most business owners do not get quite right. An elevated business requires elevated messaging. It is not fancy. It is not sexy. It is not juicy. It is not complicated. It is not woo-speak. It is just clean, grounded, confident, and clear.
So what changes when you uplevel your message? You stop trying to appeal to everyone. You start speaking clearly to the right people. Your content becomes bolder and simpler. Your points of view sharpen. Your audience recognizes themselves faster, and your invitations feel stronger.
So upleveling your message is what strengthens the discover, connect, and engage stages. These stages become easier because people know exactly who you are and what you stand for. And you have probably heard that many, many, many, many times, and you will probably hear it many, many, many, many more times.
Client delivery: upleveling your delivery is a game-changer because here is the thing. Your client experience is your best marketing. It is what fuels the referrals. It is what supports returning clients, and it is what makes the convert stage feel effortless.
When you uplevel your delivery, you improve your onboarding, your communication, your internal and external structure, your follow-through. I need help with that one. Do not we all? The results, the celebration, the offboarding. What happens when a client is finished with the project or with the coaching program?
Because even the smallest improvements can expand your reputation. People notice. People talk about it. People share it. People come back. Think about social media. How many times have you seen someone who has had a great experience? They will talk about it, but not anywhere near as much as when they do not have a good experience.
So upleveling your delivery is the heart of your long-term sustainability.
### 00:10:02 – Boundaries, pricing, and saying no to misaligned clients
So your environment and boundaries are step four, and this is something that not a lot of people notice. This is the quiet part of upleveling. But once you do it, it has massive effects. Your environment affects your energy. Your boundaries affect your confidence. Your standards affect your growth.
Some of the examples of upleveling your boundaries include no more taking calls outside of work hours. That includes Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Slack, and text.
Hardest thing that I have ever done is not respond to a client’s message or text at eight o’clock at night when I am, truth be told, probably sitting in my recliner with my feet up, watching a baseball or a football game and working. But if I did it then, I will have to keep doing it. And I am really working on setting my own boundaries, so I totally relate to this.
No more defaulting to discounts. Discounts have never been my problem because I am not a discounter, but a lot of you are. A lot of you, I know, are. Now, okay, I will take that back. I do coupon my online programs, but I do that for a variety of reasons. But the actual coaching or the actual work that we do from the website design agency, no, I do not discount those. And I have been asked, but it is, for me, the first sign that you are not my client. If you ask for a discount, you are not it, because I am pretty firm on my pricing.
So no more defaulting to discounts. No more saying yes to clients that you know are not your clients. Been there, done that. Because you know, you watch the bank account getting a little lower and you think, “Oh, I will just say yes because I need money.” It always ends up biting you. Do not say yes to misaligned clients.
No more reinventing your offer every month. And oh my gosh, was this one hard for me to write, because I have been in that stage of rebranding my business, as many of you know, and changing up what I am doing. That has been the hardest thing, not to go back in and tweak and change up and do all that. And I am still working on that. That is still, you know, I am still working on this step.
And no more spreading yourself across platforms that you hate. I hear so many business owners say, “I do not want to TikTok. I do not want to do this.” Then do not. We are at a place in our life where we do not have to do things that we do not want to do. Nothing makes me more perturbed than hearing somebody say, “I have to go do this.” No, you do not. You do not have to go do anything.
Think about what you enjoy. Think about what lights you up in your business, and do more of that.
These are all boundaries, and boundaries are what keep the client journey clean and consistent. If you want great clients, you must create the environment where great clients thrive. I am going to repeat that again: if you want great clients, you must create the environment where great clients thrive. You want them? Build it.
In this case, it really is “build it and they will come.” You might have to be patient while you start getting them when you are doing this, but it will come out in the long run, I promise you.
### 00:13:52 – The reality and discomfort of upleveling
So what is the reality of upleveling? Because nobody really talks about or warns you about this. Upleveling can be very exciting, but it can feel really uncomfortable. It requires harder questions, better decisions. It requires letting go of things that might have once worked for you but will no longer serve you. It requires stepping into bigger expectations, bigger expectations for yourself and for your clients, and it requires new levels of responsibility.
But it can also create better clients, better results, better energy, better systems, better income, better momentum, better opportunities. Upleveling is the shift that moves your business from crowded and confusing to clear and compelling.
And once you uplevel, you are ready for the next stage of the TRUE framework. So now you have upleveled, let’s get ready to expand. What does that really mean? Because this is where most business owners get the most excited and the most overwhelmed.
Expansion is not adding more offers, adding more platforms, adding more noise, adding more complexity. Expansion is the strategic, intentional extension of what is already working. You expand only after you trim, refine, and uplevel. Expansion becomes easy when the foundation is solid.
### 00:15:26 – Expanding reach, revenue, and reputation
And expansion shows up in three ways: your reach, your revenue, and your reputation. You can call it the three R’s if you want. These are your growth engine. So let’s talk about how it connects to the client journey.
The expansion of reach. Reach expands when your message is upleveled and consistent, when your presence feels stronger and more grounded, and it expands when your client experience creates buzz, when people talk about what a great experience they had working with you. Discover becomes simpler, connect becomes faster, and engage becomes deeper. The expansion of reach is not about a bigger audience. It is about reaching the right audience.
Revenue expands when you refine your offer, your pricing matches your positioning, your conversions strengthen, your delivery improves, your clients return, and your referrals increase. It is the strongest tie between expand and the client journey. If you notice on step two, or the second of the three R’s, your revenue expansion touches the invite stage, the convert stage, the experience stage, the refer stage, and the return stage.
Your job is not to chase more money. Your job is to build a pathway where that revenue flows naturally and flows to you.
Step number three, or the third R, is the expansion of your reputation or your visibility. Call it visibility or reputation. This is the most overlooked, but it can be the most powerful one of them all. Your reputation expands when your work becomes undeniable, when your clients feel proud to share you, when your delivery is memorable, when your presence is elevated, when your message is clear.
Reputation is what drives the refer, the return, and the long-term loyalty and consistent opportunity in your business. And this, again, is where midlife entrepreneurs shine. Your reputation has weight, and you have spent many, many years building that reputation. Your story has credibility, and you probably have a bunch of those. Your experience has depth. You have years of experience.
Expansion of reputation happens because of who you become, not what you produce.
So here is why expansion creates ease. It is the magic behind all of this. It creates ease because you are no longer dragging the business behind you. You are walking with it.
Picture that for a minute. I have heard many people say some people run like they have a bucket of water trailing behind them. Is that your business? Is it a bucket of water trailing behind you? Or is it ease? Is it easy?
Your systems work. Your message works. Your delivery works. Your boundaries work. Your journey works. Your energy works, and all of that means that your revenue works. Because everything aligns, everything becomes efficient, and everything compounds.
When expansion follows up-leveling, business stops feeling like a grind and starts feeling like momentum.
### 00:19:34 – The Uprising Principle and leading your business
So there is something new that I have created called the Uprising Principle, and this is a principle I use with my new clients. It works like this: every time you rise, your business rises with you.
This is the opposite of how most business owners operate. Think back. Is this the opposite of how you operate? The more things get better, the more overwhelmed you feel. But if you are expanding with the TRUE framework, and you are upleveling and then expanding, your business is going to rise.
Business does not lead. You do. When you uplevel, you set higher standards. You make cleaner decisions. You attract better clients. You refuse the wrong opportunities. You clarify your direction, refine your voice, and strengthen your impact.
Because of that, the client journey expands. The discover stage becomes magnetic. Connect becomes emotional. Engage becomes consistent. Invite becomes clear. Convert becomes simple. Experience becomes elevated. Refer becomes reliable, and return becomes predictable.
When you rise, your business rises, and your client journey rises.
So why would you not do this? Why would you not uplevel and expand? Because upleveling brings fear. Expansion brings fear. Growth brings fear. Not because you cannot do it, but because it requires you to become someone you have not been before.
So here are some common fears that happen to a lot of us, and many of us, I might say. They get about my client’s journey and what they are talking about. Most of it revolves around fear.
If I raise my prices, will people still buy?
If I get more visible, will I be criticized?
If I refine my niche, will I lose clients?
If I simplify, will I fall behind?
If I expand, will I burn out?
Every fear ties back to one thing: the transition between who you were and who you are becoming.
I have had clients tell me, and I have had really good clients tell me, “I cannot do that. It feels uncomfortable. I am not comfortable doing that.” And my response to that is, we all are uncomfortable when new things are happening. Uncomfortableness is a good thing. So many times it is used as an excuse.
A lot of my clients are intuitives. They are spiritual. They are “woo” clients. When they tell me, “It just does not… I am not being led to do that,” a lot of times I think it is a cop-out, honestly.
So is this you? Is that who you are? Are you using that as an excuse, that you are not comfortable doing that because you are afraid to move and afraid to uplevel and afraid to expand? I think so.
Upleveling is identity work. Expansion is leadership work. You need both if you want your business to stop dragging and start flowing.
### 00:23:09 – Practical actions, reflection questions, and closing
So here are a few practical high-level actions that can strengthen the uplevel and expand phase for you. And in just a few minutes, I am going to give you an action plan.
Take a look at your onboarding. Upgrade it. It improves the experience phase and increases the return.
Take a look at your brand voice or your visuals. Have somebody else look at those for you. I am kind of weaving in action steps as I go along, but hey. Update your brand voice and have somebody else take a look at it for you. Is it clear to them? Have them parrot back what your business does. You have heard me say this many, many times. If someone who knows you well cannot figure out what you do, someone who does not know you will not be able to either. By doing this, it will strengthen the discover and connect phase.
Take a look at your pricing. Is it time to, gulp, raise your prices? Possibly, because this will strengthen the invite and convert stage. Believe it or not, higher pricing is easier to convert many times.
Improve your client communication rhythm. That strengthens the experience and the referral stage.
Simplify and focus your offers. Go back and look at what you are offering. Are you offering too many? Can you combine them into one or two offers? That way you only have to talk about one, not ten. By combining or getting rid of some that are kind of old and dated, it will improve every stage of the client journey.
Remove outdated freebies and content. That will reduce confusion and it will improve your engage side. I just went through and looked at all of mine. I went back through and looked at one of my first lead magnets that was still on my website. Oh my gosh, I had not looked at the emails in a long time that go with that lead magnet. I was almost embarrassed that those were still going out. They were full of gifs, they were long. I am like, “Okay, these need to be redone.” So if you get my lead magnet on my website now, they have been redone, on the website agency website.
Then create just one elevated signature offer. You can have offers that will drive to that signature offer. I am not talking about that, many offers or many things. I am talking about how many big programs you have. Up-leveling is not one giant move. It is a series of aligned decisions that will compound for you over time.
So if you want to know whether you are ready for the next step, start here. This is your action step for the week, and I am asking you to have some honest reflection.
Here is what I am going to ask you to do. I want you to take a snapshot of your business as it stands today. Not the hopeful version, not the polished version, but the real version. I want you to get out a journal, get out a piece of paper, or get out your computer, however you prefer to take notes or answer questions. I want you to answer these questions. Then, as I mentioned before, go have somebody else take a look at all of this.
Ask yourself:
Is my message clear?
Are my offers aligned?
Is my client experience consistent?
Do people talk about my work?
Do clients return?
Do referrals happen naturally?
Do I have the capacity to grow?
Do I know where clients get stuck?
If the answer to most of these is yes, then you are ready for expansion. If the answer is no, go back to trim and refine and tighten what needs to be tightened.
Here is why this matters now. These questions build the awareness you need before we move into the deeper work of understanding how clients actually journey through your business. When you know it is aligned and it is still wobbling, the client journey becomes easier to see, easier to map, and easier to strengthen.
This step also prepares you. It will clear some of the mental clutter that is going on up there. It gets you grounded in what is really true about your business so you can see clearly what it needs to grow next.
TRUE, the TRUE framework, sets the foundation. Your client journey will build on it. So your job this week is simply to get honest, so you have solid ground to stand on when we take the next step.
So let’s wrap this up. I want you to uplevel before you expand. Elevate your presence, your message, your delivery, and your environment. Then expand your reach, your revenue, and your reputation. I am not expecting you to do that all in one week. We have that coming to look forward to.
Trim and refine clean the path. Uplevel and expand build the runway. Together, the TRUE framework prepares you for the full client journey we are about to dive into in the next series.
If you want help identifying exactly where your uplevel or expand opportunities are hiding, schedule your Profitable Path Blueprint Call with me. We will walk through your stage of business, your stage of the client journey, and the biggest opportunities you have for growth.
And remember, it is never too late to build a business of your dreams. I am Lori Lyons, and we will see you next time.
Thank you for joining me on the Midlife Business Academy. If today’s episode made you think, or made you feel, or made you feel seen, share it with a fellow business owner who could use it too. When you are ready for more support, you will find the link to book your Profitable Path Blueprint Call in the show notes.
I will be back next week with more insight and strategy to help you build a business that truly fits your life and one of your dreams. We will see you next time on the Midlife Business Academy.