How Katie Corlis built a referral-led LinkedIn strategy business
Katie Corlis is the founder of Outside the Box Solutions, where she provides LinkedIn strategy and creative marketing support. She explains how referrals shaped the business, why she made LinkedIn strategy a standalone service, and how clear expectations help keep client work on track.
A clear offer and straightforward communication can help build trust, but client outcomes also depend on the client’s participation. Corlis’s experience points to referrals, specific examples and agreed expectations as practical foundations for client work.
What’s the short story of how your business started, and what makes it genuinely different from the other options your customers have?
Outside the Box Solutions began in January 2012 as a result of my growing social media skills that I was obtaining from being a consultant for a MLM styled company at the time. That side of my world was allowing me to better understand the power of social media, and soon others in my circle started to notice my skills. During 20129 my focus shifted to doing more LinkedIn strategy for professionals wanting to demystify the platform and more clients were coming to me for my creative ways of marketing their goods, products, services, programs, and skills.
For nearly 15 years, my clients have been coming to me because I tend to be a straight shooter and for many they have been burned by other marketers who were more ‘flash-in-the-pan’ style. How I communicate from the start seems to be a deciding factor for many of the clients over the years. A lot of my LinkedIn clients appreciate the 8 weeks of transformation we do together to optimize their LinkedIn presence with smart, simple, and successful strategies. To many I am known as a LinkedIn Unicorn due to my skills!
How did you win your first customers, and where does most of your new business come from today?
The start of 2012 is when I gained my first social media client that needed my skills. It was a local auto repair shop that has a niche of restorations. We focused on how they look at the project from start to finish + where they get their experts who work on the projects. This auto repair shop was a referral from a client in my MLM world.
As for my current clients, I am still a referral based business. In today’s world, most of my group program members are referrals from happy completed group program members. I also do a lot of my own prospecting via a wide range of networking opportunities that I am connected to. Overall, my current clients all come to me in some form of organic lead gen.
What’s one decision that changed the direction of your business, and one mistake that taught you the most?
In 2019 I made a decision to accept a new client who was a corporate working professional here in the US to be a LinkedIn strategy client. Up until that point, I was still doing a wide range of social media skills for business owners. I had never thought of doing my LInkedIn skills as a stand alone service; then target a wider net of potential clients. I was approached by a husband of a current client who needed my LinkedIn skills only and my thought pattern shifted. I worked with him to optimize his LinkedIn profile, increase his overall presence on the platform, and start building a bigger network with intentions of finding him a new career home. In under 90 days, he had a powerful profile, a great presence, a growing network, and a new career opportunity.
The biggest lessons that I have been connected to over the course of nearly 15 years boils down to communication and how a contract/agreement is laid out. I have learned that it is better to over communicate. Emails of the progression made go out often for my 1:1 LinkedIn clients. My group program members get several posts and messages in the private LinkedIn group weekly. My strategy clients looking for creative ways to increase their visibility get follow up messages between strategy sessions that give them ideas, leads, examples, and even conferences to investigate to expand the strategy we are discussing a layer deeper.
When it comes to the layout and wording of a contract or agreement, I always put myself in a bit better light than my client. I lay out terms & conditions from the jump. I have plain wording in regards to my refund policy. I ensure that my invoices include their own set of terms & conditions. I make sure there is a game plan landed out that includes that I will need my client’s help or feedback and the results of this game plan are connected to both my work and theirs. We are a team or partnership during our time together. I will put my all in, but if they don’t match me, the results will be skewed due to the lack of cooperation.
What has changed in your industry or in what your customers expect over the last couple of years, and how have you adapted?
When I ask my LinkedIn clients why they have come to me, I often get some feedback that they are worried about being mislead on the platform. They might have tried another person who just did more harm than good for their strategy on the platform. I have examples of what my work can do which seems to do the heavy lifting for me. They know that what they see is what they will get from the jump. No smoke or mirrors with me or the strategies that I have spent years cultivating.
Overall, I have seen more supposed experts on LinkedIn claiming that they can get you six-figures of income in under 60 days. The price for their programs is typically low five figures to mid five figures. Yet, their reviews are subpar. I sense that change in the industry post Pandemic has been why people appreciate I show the wins of what I can do when I work with my clients. For me, adaptation is more just being a straight shooter from the jump.
When I work with my strategy clients looking for creative marketing wins, they are surprised at how much my mind thinks outside-the-box. I can create startegy plans that are hyper local for them or plans that allow them to scale their business over the course of a year. We connect about what their goals are and which one is the top. We focus on that goal then go after the next teir of goals. This approach keeps them clear and focused, but very open to ideas on expansion.
If you were advising someone starting out in your industry today, what would you tell them to do first, and what would you tell them to ignore?
If someone wants to get into the world of Marketing, find where your natural skills lie. No joke! I have always been such a creative thinker. When I was a kid, I wrote stories and many of them won local county awards among the students. When I was in high school, my mind allowed me to create papers that explored the topic from a different layer. During my college years, my mind flourished and creativity was my super-power! Follow your natural skills that are connected to the various arms, legs, and sources of Marketing. Be a powerful unicorn via your natural skills!
Ignore how others are doing things in a sense. Take notes of what is successful for them, but put your mark on the process or strategy or series. Your dose of humanity can be a source of why a client comes to you instead of them. Follow leaders in the industry to set on the pulse, but don’t compare them to you. My unicorn skills is my mark that attracts my clients.
Thank you to Katie Corlis and the team at Outside the Box Solutions for sharing what actually worked with Leaders Perception readers.
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