Last month I had to decide whether to raise my mastermind price from $5,000 to $8,500 per cohort.
No business partner to call. No advisory board meeting to schedule. No $500 per hour strategy consultant on retainer. Just me, a spreadsheet, and that familiar knot in my stomach that shows up every time a decision could either double my revenue or empty my pipeline.
If you run a coaching or consulting business doing $150K to $500K, you know exactly what I am talking about. The pricing calls. The "should I launch this new offer" debates. The "do I hire a VA or build a system" crossroads. You are making decisions that would get a full board presentation at any other company, and you are making them alone at your kitchen table.
I found something that changed this for me. Not a mastermind (though those help). Not a mentor. A skill called c-level-advisor that turns Claude Code into 28 different executive advisory frameworks you can run in seconds.
Without This vs. With This
Before: You spend 3 to 5 hours researching a strategic question. You ask ChatGPT for generic advice. You poll your Facebook group. You get 47 opinions and zero frameworks. You make a gut call and hope.
After: You describe your decision in plain English. The skill runs it through frameworks like SWOT, Porter's Five Forces, Blue Ocean Strategy, BCG Matrix, McKinsey 7S, and 22 others. You get a structured analysis with specific recommendations in under 60 seconds. You make an informed call and move.
What the Output Looks Like
Here is what I got when I asked about my pricing decision:
` FRAMEWORK: Value-Based Pricing Analysis (CFO Advisory)
Current State: $5,000/cohort, 12 seats, 4 cohorts/year = $240,000 Proposed State: $8,500/cohort, 10 seats, 4 cohorts/year = $340,000
Key Finding: Your delivery cost is fixed regardless of price point. Your current price-to-value ratio suggests 40% underpricing based on comparable programs with similar completion rates (89%).
Recommendation: Phase increase. $6,500 next cohort, $8,500 in Q3. Add one premium deliverable to justify the jump. Risk: 15-20% seat reduction at new price, net revenue still +$60K. `
That analysis would have cost me $1,500 from a fractional CFO. I got it in 45 seconds.
Time Saved / Money Recovered
Time saved: 4 to 6 hours per week on strategic decisions and research
Dollar equivalent: $2,400/month (based on $150/hour coaching rate redirected to client work)
What this replaces: A $2,000 to $5,000/month fractional C suite advisor or strategy consultant. Or worse, the cost of bad decisions made without frameworks.
Who This Is NOT For
If you are in your first year of coaching and still figuring out your niche, this is overkill. Get your first 20 clients before you start running Porter's Five Forces on your positioning.
Get It Running in 90 Seconds
- Install Claude Code if you have not already: claude.ai/code
- Clone the skill:
git clone https://github.com/alirezarezvani/claude-skills.git - First thing to say: "I need to decide whether to raise my group coaching price from $X to $Y. Run a CFO and CMO analysis on this decision."
That is it. You now have a virtual board of directors. Full skill library here.
Want to learn the most practical AI automation skills for your business and get real feedback from a cohort of experienced service business owners who get it? Join the Mastermind
Pairs Well With
- mckinsey-strategist for deeper MECE analysis on complex business problems:
npx claude-superskills@latest install mckinsey-strategist(GitHub) - startup-growth-strategist for TAM/SAM/SOM calculations when sizing new offers:
npx claude-superskills@latest install startup-growth-strategist(GitHub)
The Real Talk
I have been building businesses for 30 years. For 28 of those years, I either paid a lot of money for strategic advice or I winged it. Both approaches have their problems.
The coaches I see scaling past $300K right now are not the ones with the best content or the biggest audiences. They are the ones making faster, better informed decisions. The coaches charging $25,000 per engagement are not working more hours. They built systems that make them sharper.
And here is the thing about building alone: most of us do it because we think we cannot afford not to. But the cost of slow or uninformed decisions is far higher than the cost of any tool.
How to charge more because of AI, not despite it starts with making premium decisions. A $0 board of directors is how you begin.
Want to learn the most practical AI automation skills for your business and get real feedback from a cohort of experienced service business owners who get it? Join the Mastermind
Frequently asked questions
How long does it actually take to run one of these frameworks versus doing the research myself?
60 seconds versus the 3 to 5 hours you'd spend reading blog posts, competitor sites, and asking your network. You get structured output immediately instead of synthesis paralysis.
If I'm already using ChatGPT for business questions, why do I need 28 frameworks instead of just prompting it?
ChatGPT gives you surface-level takes. These frameworks force your decision through CFO logic, competitive analysis, operations lenses, and customer psychology simultaneously. A solo $300K business making a $50K pricing decision needs that rigor, not generic advice.
Will this actually work for my specific business type, or is it generic consultant stuff?
It works because you feed it your real numbers: your current revenue, your conversion rate, your delivery time per client. A therapist with 8 clients per week gets different output than a coach with 2, even when both run the same framework.
What if the framework tells me to do something that contradicts my gut?
Then you have a real conversation with yourself about whether your gut is intuition or fear. Most solos I work with find the frameworks validate their instinct 60% of the time and catch blind spots 40% of the time. Either way, you're not flying blind.
Can I use this for decisions under $10K, or is it overkill for small choices?
Use it for any decision that affects your calendar, cash, or client experience for more than a quarter. Hiring a VA, launching a group program, raising your rate, pivoting your niche. The frameworks take 60 seconds, so there's no downside to structure.