The Leap That Worked: Member Stories on Bold Moves That Changed Their Business

What separates a business that grows from one that stalls? It usually comes from a bold move that carries some risk. Inside Inner Circle, we hear these stories often. Members tell us about the moment they stopped waiting for the right time and made a change that reshaped their business for the better. Here are three stories from members who took the leap and the net appeared.

Saying No In Order to Grow

Becca Berkenstadt of Worldly Strategies made a move that felt counterintuitive at first: she started turning potential clients away. By learning to spot the red flags of a bad fit early in the sales process, she freed up her time and increased her revenue. "Saying no is scary, especially when you're a new business with more time than money, but it's one of the foundations of sustainable growth," she says.

Defining her ideal client gave Becca the confidence to walk away from work that wasn't right for her, and to refer those leads to someone better suited. The more intentional she became about who she worked with, the better the results got, for her clients and for her business.

Building a Movement from an Idea

In 2025, Tami Palmer and Inner Circle co-founder Kim Kleeman noticed something happening in the Chicago suburbs. Small groups of professional women were forming on their own to network, with no formal structure behind them.

Instead of standing by and watching it happen, Tami and Kim decided to build something out of it. "We saw the vision, divided up tasks, and went for it, creating a movement," Tami says. That decision became the Professional Moms Community Network, a network of local professional networking groups for women, which now boasts 16 chapters nationwide and growing. Tami and Kim provide chapter leaders with the framework, education, and support to start their own networking groups and build connected communities. Tami's story shows what can happen when you recognize momentum early and act on it.

Letting Go to Move Forward

For Brian Sly of Emblem Creative Interactive, the hardest part of growing his business had nothing to do with finding new clients. It was learning to give up some control in his business. As a hands-on entrepreneur, he could usually finish a task faster alone than teaching someone else to do it. But he realized his business could only grow as far as he personally could take it.

Brian started hiring more contractors and putting more effort into selling his partners alongside his own. "It sucks to give up control, especially when other people don't complete projects the way I would," he admits. Relying on others has pushed him to build better processes, communicate more clearly, and take on bigger opportunities that he could not have managed alone.