CREATIVE
SUCCESSFUL
ENTREPRENEURS
Turn your creative passion into a thriving business.
CREATIVE
SUCCESSFUL
ENTREPRENEURS
Turn your creative passion into a thriving business.
What We Do
We are business coaches for creatives. We help creatives start and grow businesses. We help people turn their passion into income. We show people how they can make a real living doing what they are best at. And we’ve been doing it for over twenty-five years.
What We Do
We are business coaches for creatives. We help creatives start and grow businesses. We help people turn their passion into income. We show people how they can make a real living doing what they are best at. And we’ve been doing it for over twenty-five years.
WHO WE ARE
World Class Coaches
CSE founder Melissa McFarlane is a seasoned, internationally-recognized coach with over 25 years of experience in executive, business, and personal coaching for creatives. She and her team have demonstrated an uncanny, intuitive genius for removing barriers and cutting through personal and organizational roadblocks to allow real emotional, mental, and practical breakthroughs to occur.
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How we can help
Building Businesses is Our Business
We show creative freelancers and budding entrepreneurs how to make use of tried and true business building techniques in order to turn their creative endeavors into profitable businesses. We teach you how to pick a target audience, how to market to that audience, how to package and price your goods and services for maximum returns, how to craft premium offers that create sustainable cashflow, and much more. When you sign on with us, you get access to a rich community of like-minded men and women who are using their talents to enrich themselves and the world around them. You also get access to our many business building group trainings, our team of marketing experts, and much, much more….
How we can help
Building Businesses is Our Business
We show creative freelancers and budding entrepreneurs how to make use of tried and true business building techniques in order to turn their creative endeavors into profitable businesses. We teach you how to pick a target audience, how to market to that audience, how to package and price your goods and services for maximum returns, how to craft premium offers that create sustainable cashflow, and much more. When you sign on with us, you get access to a rich community of like-minded men and women who are using their talents to enrich themselves and the world around them. You also get access to our many business building group trainings, our team of marketing experts, and much, much more….
Just Some of Our Happy Clients
Before working with Melissa through CSE I’d experienced a lot of success as a writer and had a good practice teaching and coaching motherless daughters in groups. But enrollment was exhausting and spotty, income was unreliable, and I felt nervous to hire more support. After working together in just one year I experienced a $12K more/month in income, 54% increase in subscribers and a new income stream that netted over $40K in additional revenue to boot. Now my company has over 10K followers and 100+ clients.
The work I have done with Melissa has allowed me to shift my perspective on business and financial success from one of passive observer to active participant. The ability to direct and decide my own income flow has freed me creatively in ways I never imagined possible. My business supports my creative endeavors. My creative projects inform my work with the business. I am on track toward my first independent 100k year and am winning awards with my new series at the same time. CSE has made all the difference.
I’ve been the executive director of my company for over 20 years, and I’ve been looking for ways to leverage and monetize the professional knowledge and expertise in my nonprofit organization. We like to help other organizations and we can do more when we build alternative revenue streams. CSE’s program is clear, proven, and challenges some of the cherished beliefs held by “givers.” Melissa and her team of coaches model the very content they teach and I am already making the mental leaps necessary to bring profits to my organization.
I didn’t have a business, name, packages, offers or anything else before CSE. Just an idea. 2 years later I can support myself (through a pandemic) and it’s incredible. I hit my first income goal and I’m on my way to the next. I’m incredibly fulfilled because I can help people, see their results and make others around me build a business.
CSE helped me understand the nuts and bolts of building a business from scratch – what that looks like, a timetable, and the kind of people I need to work with…but also how to find within myself a commitment and motivation and values that I can bring to the world through my business.
Working with CSE, I was able to streamline my sales cycle and build a confident sales plan that even I could follow. I wouldn’t be moving forward this fast or this productively without her! Signing up with CSE was the best thing I ever did for my business.
“In TWO MONTHS since beginning my work with Melissa & CSE I have:
- Increased my income by 75% from mid 5 figures to over 6 figures.
- Learned a reliable, repeatable, step-by-step procedure for closing sales with clients I love and a schedule I control.
- Tripled my income within 8 months (from mid 5 figures to 6 figures.)
Gotten a clear picture of the number one obstacle holding me back from achieving what I want professionally and how to overcome it. - Gained an incredible network of like-minded entrepreneurs through my access to the CSE online community and events.
- Broken my cycle of hesitation and lack of confidence, and turned it into a cycle of action and determination.
- Learned a reliable, repeatable, step-by-step procedure for closing sales with the clients I know I can serve best.
- Embraced the full extent of the impact I want to have on the world, and reset all of my goals to make that happen.
To say it plainly –
Now I love what I do.
Now I know what I do.
Now I know why I do it, and who I’m doing it for.
And I love leaning into it all, while I make more money than I ever have.
CSE showed me how to build the entire foundation of my 7 figure business, I became a 6 figure in business in 2 years and developed all of my programs and came up with my name for my company. I learned how to sell my courses, I started to price my packages at a rate that scared me, and I set up the business systems that I am still using 8 years later! Becuase of CSE, I have made well over 7 figures in revenue, I have an amazing brand, I am attracting high-end clients.
“I run my business so completely differently than I did last year – I can’t stress that enough. I used to NEVER have a plan for anything. I just flew by the seat of my pants, hoping for the next client to come along. I couldn’t predict income. I had no control over anything. And I was often broke. Now, I feel like a different person. I created packages that put me in the driver’s seat of my business, I streamlined my services and processes, I nailed my sales call ability (easily selling $5k packages over the phone), and I started charging literally TRIPLE what I used to charge. So now I work with fewer clients who are all the most amazing people, and I feel 100% centered in my zone of genius. My goal this year is to surpass 6 figures… and guess what? I have a plan that makes that a goal a ‘when’ not an ‘if’. I wholeheartedly recommend CSE to anyone who wants to build a successful creative business.”
Before I joined Melissa’s Inner Circle program I had taken my “You Should Do Voiceover” training classes from the germ of an idea to successful weekend workshops in LA, NY and Chicago… but I was putting in massive effort for a fairly small return. After working with CSE, my income increased 5x to just under 6 figures in the next year.
I really do believe in the power of Melissa – I think I am a bit uncoachable; she always has me see the possibility; every time I speak with her I create a win – I just upsold a client into a 12K program – Paid in Full! Before CSE I was only getting trickles of income. Now, cash upfront!
I’ve been bragging about you and your workshops to anyone who will listen! I wanted you to know that I made over $6000 on my business over the last few days. I credit you with really helping me change the way I think about, brand, and how to market my business. Your company has made all the difference for me. Thank you!
Choosing Your Target
We show you not only how to choose a target, but why saying yes to the right people and no to the wrong people can make or break your business.
Packaging and Pricing
We teach you how to package your services (and the skills you have but aren’t charging for) into packages that people will pay for upfront for more than you ever thought of charging.
Offer Creation
We help you develop the perfect offer for the right fit client, and teach you how to present and close that offer at a premium price.
Sales
We provide you with proven sales scripts, and teach you the in’s and out’s of having a real sales conversation that closes people into offers that are prefect for them, and lucrative for you.
Mindset
We teach you how to think and act like a business person, how to design your business so it serves you, and to ask for more for yourself than you ever thought possible.
Marketing
We show you how to build your list, how to create an irresitable marketing funnel, and how to fill your books with warm leads eager to buy what you have to offer.
Build a Better Business Build a Better World
Join the hundreds of successful artists, designers, film-makers, healers, coaches, and other professionals who have used CSE to turn their creative passions into thriving businesses.
