Inner Circle — Private mentorship

Who it's for

Operators, not aspirants.

Inner Circle is the closest work we do with a small number of women per faculty lead. The work assumes you already run a business that produces revenue and has employees or contractors. We are not building it from zero with you — we are restructuring what you already run so the next stage compounds instead of breaks.

The women who get the most out of this room have stopped trying to "figure it out" themselves. They have a thesis about where they're going. They want a senior thinking partner who has built it before, will tell them when they're wrong, and will hold the standard.

What's included

The work, not the wrapping.

Senior faculty · 1:1

Private sessions, twice monthly

A senior faculty lead (Elsa or a certified senior coach) holds the engagement end-to-end. Sessions are 60 minutes, structured against the four pillars, with a written brief in and a decision log out. Direct line between sessions for the calls that can't wait.

Quarterly intensives

Four intensives a year

Two-day working sessions — the room where the heavier rebuilds happen. Positioning audits, offer architecture, sales process redesign, hiring and delegation maps. In-person where geography allows; virtual where it doesn't.

Bespoke build

Positioning + sales system installed for you

Not handed a template — built against your business. Message map, offer ladder, sales playbook, qualification scorecard, hire-and-train path. Faculty does the build alongside you so it lives after the engagement.

Peer network

The Inner Circle room

A closed network of operators in the same tier. Quarterly peer calls, a private channel, and warm intros to the women in the room you'd otherwise spend years trying to meet. The room is not a perk — it's part of why the work compounds.

The application process

Three steps. Honest both ways.

01

Take the Scorecard

Twelve questions, six minutes. The diagnostic places you against the four pillars and tells you whether Inner Circle is the right level — or whether Academy or Membership is the better starting point. We won't take an application from someone the diagnostic flags as a poor fit.

02

30-minute qualification call

A working call, not a sales pitch. Faculty walks through your Scorecard, your current revenue, the constraint you're hitting, and what you'd want resolved in the first ninety days. Investment is discussed openly on this call. You leave with a clear yes, no, or "not yet."

03

Invitation decision

Within five working days you receive an invitation, a "not yet" with a recommended path (usually Academy first), or a "no" with the reason. We turn down applicants the diagnostic clears. Time horizon, willingness to be coached, and faculty bandwidth matter as much as the numbers.

Fit criteria

We'd rather lose the deal than place a poor fit.

A misplaced Inner Circle client costs both sides — you spend money the system can't yet absorb, we spend faculty hours that don't produce a result we can publish. So we're direct about who we say yes to, and who we don't.

Yes if

You're producing at least $250k revenue annually, with a clear path to where the next $500k comes from.
You can commit a 12-month minimum engagement and the time it takes (~6–10 hrs/wk including sessions, work blocks, intensives).
You have at least one team member or contractor we can build a delegation path around.
You're willing to be coached — to be told when an offer is wrong, when a hire is wrong, when you are the bottleneck.
You have a thesis about the category you want to own. (We sharpen it. We don't invent it from scratch.)

Not yet if

You're below the revenue floor — Academy is the right room until the numbers catch up.
You're between businesses or testing whether to start one — Membership is where to begin.
You want a coach to validate decisions you've already made — Inner Circle will frustrate you.
Your time is fully consumed by current delivery and you cannot create the hours the work requires.
You need a guaranteed outcome on a fixed timeline. We don't sell those — see the FAQ.

Inner Circle clients

Two operators who did the work.

Service · Inner Circle · 18 months

Bwalya Mulenga

Came in at $220k ARR, working every part of delivery and every sales call personally. The constraint was obvious: she was the company. Eighteen months later, $1.05M ARR, two delivery leads trained inside the program, and a sales system that closes without her in the call.

The work was Pillar 3 (Repeatable Sales Systems) and Pillar 4 (Personal Mastery) in tandem — building the playbook and building the discipline to step out of the rooms where she'd been the bottleneck. Pillar 1 (Brand Authority) caught up afterwards because the inbound rate climbed once the team could service it.

$220k → $1.05M ARR

Coaching · Academy → Inner Circle · 9 months

Susan Kommor

Came through Academy first, then moved into Inner Circle when the positioning work needed depth a cohort couldn't give. Started at $120k ARR as a generalist coach competing on price. Nine months later, $410k ARR, paid spend cut to zero, inbound rate tripled.

The work was Pillar 1 (Brand Authority) — narrowing into a category she could own — coupled with Pillar 2 (Marketing That Converts) to rebuild the message hierarchy on owned channels. The sales system tightened on the back of the positioning, not the other way around.

$120k → $410k ARR

FAQ

The questions every serious applicant asks.

What does it cost?

Investment is discussed openly on the qualification call, not posted publicly. The reason is not coyness — it's that Inner Circle is a 12-month minimum engagement with bespoke scope, and the number depends on the senior faculty lead, intensive cadence, and depth of the bespoke build. What we can say: it's a meaningful capital allocation for a 6- or 7-figure business, and we don't take applications from operators for whom the cost would be financially destabilising. If the number is going to be a problem, the call surfaces that quickly and we route to Academy.

What's the refund policy?

Inner Circle is a 12-month commitment, paid up-front or on a payment plan. There is a 14-day window after invoice for a full refund if you decide the engagement isn't the right fit. After that, the engagement runs to term — refunds are not issued for change of mind, change of business circumstance, or non-attendance. Full terms are linked from the invoice. The qualification call exists so both sides can decide before the financial commitment, not after.

When does the next cohort start?

Inner Circle isn't cohort-based — engagements start when you're invited and the senior faculty lead has bandwidth. Most invitations begin within four to six weeks. Quarterly intensives run on a fixed calendar (March, June, September, December) so you join the next one available after start.

Who actually delivers the work — Elsa, or someone else?

Both, depending on availability and fit. Elsa leads a fixed number of Inner Circle clients personally and is the most common lead for clients above $750k ARR. Senior faculty (certified in the Category Of One System™ and accountable to the same delivery standard) lead the rest. The qualification call confirms which lead before any invitation is issued. You always know who you're working with before you commit.

Will you guarantee a revenue outcome?

No. We will not promise a revenue figure or a timeline because we don't control your market, your team, or what you do with what we install. What we will commit to: faculty shows up, the work gets built, and you get an honest read on what's working and what isn't every time. Past clients have grown 2x to 5x in 12 months. Some have grown less. None have grown because we promised a number — they grew because the system got installed and they kept executing.

Can I bring my business partner or co-founder into sessions?

Yes, with notice. The engagement is held with one named operator, but a co-founder can join specific sessions when the work being done requires it (positioning, hiring, equity decisions). Standing co-founder access is a separate arrangement — discussed on the qualification call.

Application

Start the application.

One page. Seven minutes. Submitting this is not a commitment — it's the input we use to decide whether to invite you to the qualification call.

Step one of the application

Take the Scorecard before you apply.

The diagnostic is the first step in the Inner Circle qualification process — and the fastest way to find out whether this is the right tier or not.

Free. 12 questions, ~6 minutes.

Private mentorship for operators ready to install the full system.